Journal articles on the topic 'Italian language, textbooks for foreign speakers'

The aim of this study is to compare various lexical structures between a learner corpus of students with Italian as a foreign language and a reference monolingual Italian corpus. More specifically, the first is a learner corpus (part of a wider learner corpus) comprised of Greek students studying Italian as a foreign language while the second is the CWIC reference corpus of native Italian speakers. The research findings help us explain the role of didactic material in comprehending linguistic structures that are found in informal letters/emails and, moreover, they provide us valuable information regarding the use of the same lexical structures by native speakers.

The complex and varied sociolinguistic reality of World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has important implications for English Language Teaching (ELT). Besides questioning the validity of the ‘native speaker model’, the complexity of Global Englishes raises several issues, both at a theoretical and at an applied level, particularly for teaching. A plurilithic rather than a monolithic (monolingual/monocultural) perspective is called for, one that can make learners aware of the different roles, contexts, linguistic and functional varieties of English, so that they can be prepared to effectively interact with speakers of different Englishes and in English as a Lingua Franca contexts. Communication strategies have been shown to have a particularly significant role in English as a Lingua Franca communication, that is characterized by negotiation and co-construction of meaning; in these encounters, where different linguacultures meet, ELF speakers employ a range of pragmatic strategies to solve, or pre-empt, (potential) non-understandings often drawing on their plurilingual repertoires, too. Communication strategies can thus be said to play a fundamental role in effective communication, particularly in contexts where English is used as an international Lingua Franca. In this light, it would seem important for ELT materials to include activities aimed at raising awareness and promoting practice of communication strategies, so that they can become an integral part of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom practices towards the development of communicative ‘capability’. This article will illustrate a study investigating whether ELT materials addressed at Italian upper secondary school students include activities and tasks related to communication strategies. The examination of textbooks published by Italian and international publishers from the 1990s to 2015 shows that, apart from a few interesting cases, consistent attention has not been given to this important area. Implications for further research on the inclusion of communication strategies in ELT will also be set forward.

Increasing preoccupations and interest manifested for the Romanian language as a foreign language compose a focused and clear expression in the volume “Romanian as a foreign language. Methodology and cultural applicability”, launched at the Turku University publishing house, Finland (2018). The editors, Paul Nanu (Department of Romanian Language and Culture, University of Turku, Finland) and Emilia Ivancu (Department of Romanian Studies of the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, Poland) with this volume, continue a series of activities dedicated to the promotion of the Romanian language and culture outside the country borders. This volume brings together a collection of articles, previously announced and briefly presented at a round table organized by the two Romanian lectors, as a section of the International Conference “Dialogue of cultures between tradition and modernity”, (Philological Research and Multicultural Dialogue Centre, Department of Philology, Faculty of History and Philology, “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia). The thirteen authors who sign the articles are teachers of Romanian as a foreign language, either in the country or abroad. The challenge launched by the organisers pointed both at the teaching methods of Romanian as a foreign language – including the authors’ reflections upon the available textbooks (Romanian language textbooks) and the cultural implications of this perspective on the Romanian language. It is probably no accident that the first article of the aforementioned volume – “Particularities of teaching Romanian as a foreign language for the preparatory year. In quest of “the ideal textbook’’ (Cristina Sicoe, University of the West, Timișoara) – brings a strict perspective upon that what should be, from the author’s point of view, “the ideal textbook”. The fact that it does not exist, and has little chances ever to exist, could maybe be explained by the multitude of variables which appear in practice, within the didactic triangle composed by teacher – student – textbook. The character of the variables is the result of particular interactions established between the components of the triad. A concurrent direction is pointed out by the considerations that make the object of the second article, “To a new textbook of Romanian language as a foreign language’’ (Ana-Maria Radu-Pop, University of the West, Timișoara). While the previous article was about an ideal textbook for foreign students in the preparatory year of Romanian, this time, the textbook in question has another target group, namely Erasmus students and students from Centres of foreign languages. Considering that this kind of target group “forms a distinct category”, the author pleads for the necessity of editing adequate textbooks with a part made of themes, vocabulary, grammar and a part made of culture and civilization – the separation into parts belongs to the author – that should consider the needs of this target group, their short stay in Romania (three months to one year) and, last but not least, the students’ poor motivation. These distinctive notes turn the existent RFL textbooks[1] in that which the author calls “level crossings”, which she explains in a humorous manner[2]. Since the ideal manual seems to be in no hurry to appear, the administrative-logistic implications of teaching Romanian as a foreign language (for the preparatory year) should be easier to align with the standards of efficiency. This matter is addressed by Mihaela Badea and Cristina Iridon from the Oil & Gas University of Ploiești, in the article “Administrative/logistic difficulties of teaching RFL. Case study”. Starting from a series of practical experiences, the authors are purposing to suggest “several ideas to improve existent methodologies of admitting foreign students and to review the ARACIS criteria from March 2017, regarding external evaluation of the ‘Romanian as a foreign language’ study programme”. Among other things, an external difficulty is highlighted (common to all universities in the country), namely the permission to register foreign students until the end of the first semester of the academic year, meaning around the middle of February. The authors punctually describe the unfortunate implications of this legal aspect and the regrettable consequences upon the quality of the educational act. They suggest that the deadline for admitting foreign students not exceed the 1st of December of every academic year. The list of difficulties in teaching Romanian as a foreign language is extremely long, reaching sensitive aspects from an ethical perspective of multiculturalism. This approach belongs to Constantin Mladin from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia, who writes about “The role of the ethical component in the learning process of a foreign language and culture. The Macedonian experience”. Therefore, we are moving towards the intercultural competences which, as the author states, are meant to “adequately and efficiently round the acquired language competences”. In today’s Macedonian society, that which the author refers to, a society claimed to be multiethnic, multilingual and pluriconfessional, the emotional component of an intercultural approach needs a particular attention. Thus, reconfigurations of the current didactic model are necessary. The solution proposed and successfully applied by Professor Constantin Mladin is that of shaking the natural directions in which a foreign language and culture is acquired: from the source language/culture towards the target language/culture. All this is proposed in the context in which the target group is extremely heterogeneous and its “emotional capacity of letting go of the ethnocentric attitudes and perceptions upon otherness” seem to lack. When speaking about ‘barriers’, we often mean ‘difficulty’. The article written by Silvia Kried Stoian and Loredana Netedu from the Oil & Gas University of Ploiești, called “Barriers in the intercultural communication of foreign students in the preparatory year”, is the result of a micro-research done upon a group of 37 foreign students from 10 different countries/cultural spaces, belonging to different religions (plus atheists), speakers of different languages. From the start, there are many differences to be reconciled in a way reasonable enough to reduce most barriers that appear in their intercultural communication. Beneficial and obstructive factors – namely communication barriers – coexist in a complex communicational environment, which supposes identifying and solving the latter, in the aim of softening the cultural shock experienced within linguistic and cultural immersion. Several solutions are recommended by the two authors. An optimistic conclusion emerges in the end, namely the possibility that the initial inconvenient of the ethnical, linguistic and cultural heterogeneity become “an advantage in learning the Romanian language and acquiring intercultural communication”. Total immersion (linguistic and cultural), as well as the advantage it represents as far as exposure to language is concerned, is the subject of the article entitled “Cultural immersion and exposure to language”, written by Adina Curta (“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia). Considered to be a factor of rapid progress and effectiveness of acquisition, exposure to language that arises from the force of circumstances could be extended to that what may be named orchestrated exposure to language. This phrase is consented to reunite two types of resources, “a category of statutory resources, which are the CEFRL suggestions, and a category of particular resources, which should be the activities proposed by the organizers of the preparatory year of RFL”. In this respect, we are dealing with several alternating roles of the teacher who, besides being an expert, animator, facilitator of the learning process or technician, also becomes a cultural and linguistic coach, sending to the group of immersed students a beneficial message of professional and human polyvalence. A particular experience is represented by teaching the Romanian language at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. This experience is presented by Nicoleta Neșu in the article “The Romanian language, between mother tongue and ethnic language. Case study”. The particular situation is generated by the nature of the target group, a group of students coming, on the one hand, from Romanian families, who, having lived in Italy since early childhood, have studied in the Italian language and are now studying the Romanian language (mother tongue, then ethnic language) as L1, and, on the other hand, Italian mother tongue students who study the Romanian language as a foreign language. The strategies that are used and the didactic approach are constantly in need of particularization, depending on the statute that the studied language, namely the Romanian language, has in each case. In the area of teaching methodology for Romanian as a foreign language, suggestions and analyses come from four authors, namely Eliana-Alina Popeți (West University of Timișoara), “Teaching the Romanian language to students from Romanian communities from Serbia. Vocabulary exercise”, Georgeta Orian (“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia) “The Romanian language in the rhythm of dance and hip-hop music”, Coralia Telea (“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia), “Explanation during the class of Romanian as a foreign language” and Emilia Ivancu (Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, Poland), “Romanian (auto)biographic discourse or the effect of literature upon learning RFL”. The vocabulary exercise proposed to the students by Eliana-Alina Popeți is a didactic experiment through which the author checked the hypothesis according to which a visual didactic material eases the development of vocabulary, especially since the textual productions of the students, done through the technique that didactics calls “reading images”, were video recorded and submitted to mutual evaluation as well as to self-evaluation of grammar, coherence and pronunciation. The role of the authentic iconographic document is attested in the didactics of modern languages, as the aforementioned experiment confirms once again the high coefficient of interest and attention of the students, as well as the vitality and authenticity of interaction within the work groups. It is worth mentioning that these students come from the Serbian Republic and are registered in the preparatory year at the Faculty of Letters, History and Theology of the West University of Timișoara. Most of them are speakers of different Romanian patois, only found on the territory of Serbia. The activity consisted of elaborating written texts starting from an image (a postcard reproducing a portrait of the Egyptian artist Eman Osama), imagining a possible biography of the character. In the series of successful authentic documents in teaching-learning foreign languages, there is also the song. The activities described by Georgeta Orian were undertaken either with Erasmus students from the preparatory year at the “1 Decembrie 1989” University of Alba Iulia, or with Polish students (within the Department of Romanian Studies in Poznań), having high communication competences (B1-B2, or even more). There were five activities triggered by Romanian songs, chosen by criteria of sympathy with the interests of the target group: youngsters, late teenagers. The stake was “a more pleasant and, sometimes, a more useful learning process”, mostly through discovery, through recourse to musical language, which has the advantage of breaking linguistic barriers in the aim of creating a common space in which the target language, a language of “the other”, becomes the instrument of speaking about what connects us. The didactic approach, when it comes to Romanian as a foreign language taught to students of the preparatory year cannot avoid the extremely popular method of the explanation. Its story is told by Coralia Telea. With a use of high scope, the explanation steps in in various moments and contexts: for transmitting new information, for underlining mechanisms generating new rules, in evaluation activities (result appreciation, progress measurements). Still, the limits of this method are not left out, among which the risk of the teachers to annoy their audience if overbidding this method. Addressing (Polish) students from the Master’s Studies Program within the Romania Philology at the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, Emilia Ivancu crosses, through her article, the methodological dimensions of teaching Romanian as a foreign language, entering the curricular territory of the problematics in question by proposing an optional course entitled Romanian (auto)biographic discourse”. Approaching contact with the Romanian language as a foreign language at an advanced level, the stakes of the approach and the proposed contents differ, obviously, from the ones only regarding the creation and development of the competence of communication in the Romanian Language. The studied texts have been grouped into correspondence/epistolary discourse, diaries, memoires and (auto)biography as fiction. Vasile Alecsandri, Sanda Stolojan, Paul Goma, Neagoe Basarab, Norman Manea, Mircea Eliade are just a few of the writers concerned, submitted to discussions with the help of a theoretical toolbox, offered to the students as recordings of cultural broadcasts, like Profesioniștii or Rezistența prin cultură etc. The consequences of this complex approach consisted, on the one hand, of the expansion of the readings for the students and, on the other hand, in choosing to write dissertations on these topics. A “tangible” result of Emilia Ivancu’s course is the elaboration of a volume entitled România la persoana întâi, perspective la persoana a treia (Romania in the first person, perspectives in the third person), containing seven articles written by Polish Master’s students. Master’s theses, a PhD thesis, several translations into the Polish language are also “fruits” of the initiated course. Of all these, the author extracted several conclusions supporting the merits and usefulness of her initiative. The volume ends with a review signed by Adina Curta (1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia), “The Romanian language, a modern, wanted language. Iuliana Wainberg-Drăghiciu – Textbook of Romanian language as a foreign language”. The textbook elaborated by Iuliana Wainberg-Drăghiciu (“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia) respects the CEFRL suggestions, points at the communicative competences (linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic) described for levels A1 and A2, has a high degree of accessibility through a trilingual dictionary (Romanian-English-French) which it offers to foreign students and through the phonetic transcription of new vocabulary units.

RESUMO: Adotar o uso de gêneros textuais para o ensino de língua é uma forma de demonstrar aos alunos as diferentes manifestações cotidianas de uso da língua em questão. Dessa forma, nossa proposta busca demonstrar como o ensino de leitura e de língua italiana pode se beneficiar com a adoção de gêneros textuais, e, portanto, apresentamos um relato de experiência com base nessa abordagem teórica em específico. A partir da análise de documentos que normatizam o ensino de línguas materna e estrangeiras no país e da contribuição de teóricos que dão suporte ao nosso objetivo, demonstraremos a posição central do gênero textual para o ensino de línguas no Brasil. Nesse sentido, mergulharemos nas contribuições valorosas de Geraldi (1999), Marcuschi (2010) e Travaglia (2009), nesse aspecto vital em que os três autores convergem como proposta para o ensino de língua. Nossa investigação se propõe a indicar caminhos para que o gênero textual, em vias de consolidação de seu papel nas aulas de língua materna na escola, também seja adotado no contexto do ensino de língua estrangeira e desenvolvimento de práticas de leitura, e, portanto, seja mais valorizado nas propostas de materiais didáticos adotados por cursos de língua. Ao contrapor o modo com o qual se ensinava línguas ao modo que defendemos para o ensino produtivo, buscaremos desestruturar o ensino engessado em práticas de metalinguagem, nomenclaturas e identificações de funções linguísticas para privilegiar o ensino produtivo, isto é, aquele que visa à criação e ao desenvolvimento das competências e habilidades comunicativas do falante. Para ilustrar nossa fala, apresentaremos, também, a metodologia utilizada para o ensino de italiano em uma turma de nível A1-A2, com vias de contemplar o ensino produtivo a partir da leitura e discussões de gêneros jornalísticos escolhidos.Palavras-chave: Ensino Produtivo. Gêneros textuais. Ensino de línguas. Ensino de italiano. ABSTRACT: Adottare l’uso di generi testuali per l’insegnamento di lingue è una forma di dimostrare agli studenti le diverse manifestazioni quotidiane di uso di questa lingua. In questo modo, la nostra proposta prova a dimostrare la maneira in cui l’insegnamento di lettura e di lingua italiana possa essere beneficiato dall’addozione dei generi testuali, e, quindi, presentiamo un rapporto di esperienza basato sul cosidetto approccio teorico. Partendo dall’analisi dei documenti che standardizzano l’insegnamento di lingue madre e straniere nel paese e dal contributo di teorici che sostengono il nostro obiettivo, dimostreremo la posizione centrale del genere testuale per l’insegnamento di lingue in Brasile. Per raggiungere il nostro obiettivo, useremo i contributi preziosi di Geraldi (1999), Marcuschi (2010) e Travaglia (2009) nell’aspetto in cui le loro ricerche e pubblicazioni convergono come proposta per l’insegnamento di lingue. La nostra ricerca si propone ad indicare percorsi perché il genere testuale, in fasi di consolidamento del suo ruolo nelle lezioni di lingua madre alla scuola, sia anche utilizzato nel contesto dell’insegnamento di lingua straniera e sviluppo di pratiche di letture, e, pertanto, sia più apprezzato nelle proposte di materiali didattici adottate dai corsi di lingua. Per contrastare il modo con cui si insegnavano le lingue con quello che difendiamo come insegnamento produttivo, proveremo a destrutturare l’insegnamento chiuso nelle pratiche di metalinguaggio, nomenclature e identificazione di funzioni linguistiche per privilegiare quello tipo di insegnamento di lingue che mira alla creazione e allo sviluppo delle competenze e abilità comunicative del parlante. Per illustrare il nostro discorso, presenteremo, anche, la metodologia utilizzata per l’insegnamento di italiano in una classe livello A1-A2 affinché si contempli l’insegnamento produttivo attraverso la lettura e discussione dei generi giornalistici scelti.Parole chiave: Insegnamento produttivo. Generi testuali. Insegnamento di lingue. Insegnamento di italiano. ABSTRACT: Adopting text genres for language teaching is a way to demonstrate students the daily different manifestations of the specific language being used. This way, our proposal aims at demonstrating how reading and Italian language teaching can be benefited from the adoption of text genres, and, thus, we present a case study based on this theoretical approach. From the analysis of native and foreign language teaching normative documents, we demonstrate the central role of text genre for language teaching in Brazil. This way, we dive deep into Geraldi’s (1999), Marcuschi’s (2010) and Travaglia’s (2009) worth contributions, in the point of utmost importance where they all agree as a way to teach language. Our investigation proposes to indicate paths so that the text genre, in consolidation of its role in mother language at school, can also be adopted for foreign languages and reading practices’ developments, and, therefore, acquire more value in textbooks adopted by language schools. Comparing the way in which languages were taught in the past to the way we defend for productive teaching, we aim at deconstructing teaching based on metalinguistic practices, naming labels and syntax function identification to privilege productive teaching, that is, practices whose target is developing the speakers’ competences and communicative skills. So as to illustrate our text, we will also present the methodology used towards Italian teaching in an A1-A2 group, with the intention to contemplate productive teaching from the reading and discussion of selected journalistic texts’ discussion.Keywords: Productive Teaching. Textual genres. Language teaching. Teaching Italian.

This research is motivated by the cultural elements contained in the BIPA teaching materials at Andalas University. The method used in this research is content analysis. The data used is data obtained from cultural material contained in BIPA teaching materials at Andalas University. Data collection techniques use reading and note-taking techniques. The data sources in this research are six BIPA teaching materials including Indonesian language textbooks for foreign speakers (BIPA) at the basic level, Indonesian language textbooks for foreign speakers (BIPA) at the advanced basic level, Indonesian grammar for foreign speakers at the basic level, writing. Indonesian for basic level foreign speakers, listening Indonesian for basic level foreign speakers, speaking Indonesian for basic level foreign speakers from Andalas University. According to the results of the analysis, 2 vocal and language symbol systems were found, a knowledge system, a social organization system, a living equipment and technology system, a livelihood system, a religious and artistic system.

In this paper, foreign language textbooks are interpreted from a social constructivist perspective, as sociocultural products that contain not only specific subject knowledge, but also social norms, cultural values and ideologies (Curdt-Christiansen 2). From the point of view of critical discourse analysis ideology is a construct based upon assumptions and beliefs that reinforce, reproduce and legitimate asymmetrical power relations between different social groups. In line with this, we employ CDA to examine the presence of patriarchal ideologies in the depiction of the private sphere in a corpus composed of five textbooks of Italian as a Foreign Language and four textbooks of Serbian as a Foreign Language. Since the issue of patriarchal legacy in FL textbooks in previous research is primarily addressed in relation to English FL textbooks, one of the objectives of the present study is to shed a light on Italian FL textbooks that are insufficiently explored, and to compare them to Serbian FL textbooks, that are especially relevant as they were until now never approached from the perspective of gender. All the textbooks are employed in the specific educational context of foreign language teaching and learning in the post-secondary education in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The importance of the critical analysis of FL textbooks is emphasized because foreign language acquisition includes not only the development of communicative competence in the target language, but also represents a complex process of acculturation, during which students learn and incorporate the cultural values and customs of other countries. In this vein, we argue that FL textbooks used in class should not contain outdated gender stereotypes that convey the message that Italy and Serbia are places where patriarchal cultural values and inequalities are commonly accepted as undisputed societal norms; instead, it is argued that textbooks should promote a more emancipatory discourse and support the transformation of traditional gender roles that has occurred in the past decades in both Serbian and Italian society.

We investigated auditory gaydar (i.e., the ability to recognize sexual orientation) in female speakers, addressing three related issues: whether auditory gaydar is (1) accurate, (2) language-dependent (i.e., occurs only in some languages, but not in others), and (3) ingroup-specific (i.e., occurs only when listeners judge speakers of their own language, but not when they judge foreign language speakers). In three experiments, we asked Italian, Portuguese, and German participants (total N = 466) to listen to voices of Italian, Portuguese, and German women, and to rate their sexual orientation. Our results showed that auditory gaydar was not accurate; listeners were not able to identify speakers’ sexual orientation correctly. The same pattern emerged consistently across all three languages and when listeners rated foreign-language speakers.

This article is about the type of language that is offered to learners in textbooks, using the example of Russian. Many modern textbooks of Russian as a foreign language aim at efficient development of oral communication skills. However, some expressions used in the textbooks are not typical for everyday language. We claim that textbooks’ content should be reassessed based on actual language use, following theoretical and methodological models of cognitive and corpus linguistics. We extracted language patterns from three textbooks, and compared them with alternative patterns that carry similar meaning by (1) calculating the frequency of occurrence of each pattern in a corpus of spoken language, and (2) using Russian native speakers’ intuitions about what is more common. The results demonstrated that for 39 to 53 percent of all the recurrent patterns in the textbooks better alternatives could be found. We further investigated the typical shortcomings of the extracted patterns.

Abstract Unlike communities of speakers of other Romance languages such as French and Spanish, it has often been noticed that many Italian speakers are not particularly concerned by the inflow of foreign (mainly English) words. One reason for this, according to some scholars, is that standard Italian does not stir up linguistic identity for many native users, while English enjoys great prestige as the international language. In this paper, positions on neologisms of foreign origin are illustrated, using recently updated monolingual Italian dictionaries and also comments on neologisms collected from blogs and websites. Although they have a different status and degree of representativeness, the latter respond faster than dictionaries to doubts concerning the use of loans in Italian texts.

In the last decades, Italy has been affected by new migratory waves which enriched its varied sociolinguistic landscape. If on one hand Italy has been dealing with the integration of new immigrants in the society, on the other foreign immigrants need to cope with the extreme sociolinguistic complexity which defines the Italian linguistic reality. The present study aims to examine how foreign speakers perceive regional linguistic variation of Italy. A perceptive experiment was conducted on 44 foreign respondents to test their linguistic perception of six regional Italian varieties. Results showed that Italian’s explicit learning helps linguistic comprehension, but it is not enough to grasp differences between regional varieties of Italian, and this could cause comprehension difficulties for the unrepresented varieties in Italian language programs. We suggest that the enhancement of Italian regional varieties’ representation could foster new immigrants’ integration in the welcome society.

Abstract Nowadays knowing foreign languages is a must. The children learn more languages at the school, so it does not matter what kind of books they use. The aim of our paper is to present the data of the Hungarian official list of textbooks from the last 17 years. The lists contain textbooks, exercise books and other things. This survey is about the publishers, the rate of the authors with presumed to be German and Hungarian native speakers. The results show that the change of the textbooks ‘German as foreign language’ and these results can lead to other international comparisons.

Abstract Modern language teaching is no longer grammar based, but based on authentic real life dialogues (dialogic speech acts) which enable learners to communicate or rather to interact verbally and nonverbally competent with native speakers. The conception of language teaching curricula, especially with regard to the development of textbooks, is in need of an applicable model of communication, based on regularities or principles of language-usage. Both, Integrationism and the Mixed Game Model (MGM) opt against segregational static approaches of linguistic analysis and – at first glance – could be considered suitable approaches within the field of language teaching. Yet, I will argue that the Integrational approach is hardly applicable here, whereas the MGM perfectly suits the needs of foreign language textbook authors and editors.

Goethe's paradoxical aphorism concerning our knowledge of complex phenomena could be used to identify the feelings which may prevail at two different stages oflearning a foreign language, at an early and at an advanced one. So, for example, it is not surpris­ ing when our students, back from an exchange visit abroad, complain about having felt blocked by their thorough structural language awareness, noticing at the same time that some other foreign students showed off their fluency and richness of vocabulary, while calmly violating certain grammatical conventions. 1 Such self-conscious learners seem to miss their past lack of inhibitions, when they still naively thought oflanguage differ­ ences principally as neatly observable dissimilarities in language forms, feeling that their present awareness of more hidden foreign-language properties is rather a disadvantage in communication; so much so that they wonder whether it would not have been better to have invested all that time and energy into the acquisition of the lexicon instead.

The subject of the research is teaching Russian as a foreign language in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The object of the study is the methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language. In the article, the author presents the results of the analysis of the textbook series "Russian language". The following research methods were used: a comprehensive analysis of the "Russian language" textbook series, analysis and generalization of methodological techniques used in the textbooks, and drawing of conclusions. The theoretical significance and scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the textbooks used for teaching the Russian language in the DPRK was considered and analyzed for the first time in a Russian scientific journal, the features of the methodology for teaching Russian as a foreign language in the DPRK and the presentation of educational material in the considered textbooks were identified, a number of recommendations were made regarding improvement the quality of the textbooks. The main conclusions of the scientific study are that when studying the Russian language in the schools of the DPRK, the main emphasis is made on memorizing phrases and developing the ability to reproduce them, but not on developing the ability to express one's thoughts. The ideological component can be traced quite strongly in the textbooks considered. The absence of native speakers in the team of authors led to a significant number of errors on the pages of the textbooks.

The article touches upon the issue of integration of foreigners into another language and cultural environment on the example of Ukrainians who come to Italy for work. The theoretical basis of the article is works by Ukrainian and foreign scholars on linguistic and culture studies, psycholinguistics, psychology, methods of acquiring a foreign language, translation studies. Besides, the focus has been upon close interrelation between the knowledge of a foreign language and the ability to understand and adapt to a new culture and mentality. On the basis of the modern relevant theories the process of learning a foreign language is compared with acquisition of a native language by a child. The practical basis of the article is the author’s observations of the process of interlanguage and intercultural communication between Italians and Ukrainians in different everyday situations and the quality of acquisition of the Italian language and culture by the latter. In this research the everyday communicative situations include family and interpersonal relations, the spheres of cooking and housekeeping, the attitude to religion and work. With the help of illustrative examples from real communication the article highlights a certain similarity between Italian and Ukrainian characters and world perception, and the absence of considerable differences between the Italian and Ukrainian language systems, which facilitates a fast integration of Ukrainians into the Italian language and cultural space. Also, for illustration, we have highlighted phonetic, lexical, and grammar parallels between the Italian and Ukrainian languages. Ukrainians who have lived in Italy for quite a long time are fluent enough in the Italian language. However, if they do not approach studying of the language professionally their speech lacks grammatical correctness and vocabulary diversity. Hence, we have made conclusion that just staying in a foreign environment is not sufficient for a high-standard command of a language. For this purpose, one needs to make corresponding strong-willed efforts and to apply the language on all the levels of communication. At the end of the article we have singled out a range of issues for further research and development of the aforementioned topic.

The study reported in this paper examines foreign accent (FA) in adult simultaneous bilinguals (2L1ers). Specifically, we investigate how accent is affected if a first language is acquired as a minority (heritage) language as compared to a majority (dominant) language. We compare the perceived FA in both languages of 38 adult 2L1ers (German-French and German-Italian) to that of monolingual native speakers (L1ers) and late second language learners (L2ers). Naturalistic speech samples are judged by 84 native speakers of the respective languages. Results indicate that the majority language is always spoken without an FA, while results for the heritage language fall between those of L1 and L2 speakers. For the heritage language, we further show that a native accent correlates with length of residence in the heritage country during childhood but not during adulthood. Furthermore, raters have comparatively more difficulties when judging the accent of a heritage speaker. The results of this study add to our current understanding of what factors shape the phonology of a heritage language system in adulthood.

This essay showcases the results of a survey conducted on a sample of Italian speakers which focused on their perception of languages. The research, carried out in the second half of 2019, has enabled corroborating the initial hypothesis about the existence of preconceptions and stereotypes associated with the perception of foreign languages and cultures (Elman & McClelland 1986) by Italian people. In particular, a questionnaire was used to clarify which adjectives are commonly associated with selected foreign languages, in order to identify certain trends and stereotypes. The survey is based on ethnolinguistic and language education studies (Cardona 2006), and was performed through data collection techniques used in ethnography and sociolinguistics (Tagliamonte 2006).

This paper aims to analyze six of the most popular textbooks for Russian as a foreign language (RFL) for adolescent and adult learners used in Italy, namely Reportazh, Russkiy klass, Molodets, Davayte, Poyekhali, and Ura, to see whether and how task stratification and differentiation strategies are put in place for partially sighted (PS) and dyslexic (D) learners. Through a comparative content analysis, it is shown that there is a total lack of educational design aimed at the inclusion of PS and D learners in the Italian context. This may be due to the greater presence in such textbooks of traditional RFL views, which generally do not prioritize inclusion, as well as to carelessness toward the contributions of Italian-based glottodidactics, which, in contrast, is very attentive to inclusion issues, even for languages other than Russian. Finally, some suggestions are given, accompanied by practical examples, for enhancing the inclusivity of these textbooks.

Abstract This paper reports on an eye-tracking study investigating the processing and mnemonic retention of reverse subtitles (foreign-language subtitles presented alongside native-language audio) in learners of Italian as a Foreign language (IFL). 26 English native speakers with a CEFR B2+ Italian level watched an English clip with Italian subtitles in two translation conditions, formal similarity (literal transfer) and formal discrepancy (non-literal transfer). Immediately after watching, they answered recognition and recall questions. This study examines memory, attention allocation and the concept of noticing, which was investigated through triangulation of eye tracking, verbatim recognition and explicit reports. Data analysis methods include generalised mixed-effect modelling. Results revealed that reverse subtitles have acquisitional potential for advanced IFL learners, noticing can be probed experimentally, and formal (dis)similarity appears to have some psychological reality in the mind of the learner, being able to affect both recognition and recall. Evidence of novel word learning as well as deepening of existing knowledge emerged from the analyses, supporting the view that reversed subtitles could be more fruitfully exploited in FLL contexts. The paper presents details of the data analyses, discusses them in relation to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and psycholinguistic concepts, and draws some recommendations based on the findings.

This paper examined the representation of culture in Russian as a foreign language (RFL) textbooks to understand the problem of creating a theory of intercultural textbooks, with Italy as a case study. The four most popular RFL textbooks used by first-year students in Italian universities were studied: Poyekhali, Molodets, Mir tesen, and Davayte. A comparative content analysis of the chosen sample was performed to test how Russian culture is represented in RFL textbooks. The results reveal that such textbooks reflect only a partial and sometimes stereotypical image of Russian culture, with a strong correlation between ideologies and bias derived from RFL theories and textbook creation. In other words, these textbooks convey essentialist and/or reductionist views of the culture of Russia (e.g., poor attention paid to the Russophone dimension, stereotypes, and lack of opportunities for intercultural dialogue). The cultural topics contained in the textbooks evaluated do not quite contribute but rather hinder the formation of students’ intercultural communicative competence. Therefore, it is argued that the content of an RFL textbook should help students create complex, multilayered notions of Russian and Russophone cultures for themselves.

Learning a foreign language implies a lot more than learning grammar and vocabulary. Language learners should also acquire the necessary social and cultural skills that would allow them to interact within the context where the target language is expected to be used. As a result, EFL teachers face the challenge of selecting and explaining the cultural contents that their students could employ when communicating with other English speakers. Especially the speakers from those countries where EFL learners would more likely travel to either for academic or working purposes. In the case of Spanish EFL learners, the United States of America is among the most popular destinations in this regard. Therefore, exploring to what extend the American Culture is being addressed in EFL textbooks might help educators to improve their own teaching approach. This paper addresses research into the presence of American culture in textbooks used in Spain. The results indicate the limited importance of American Culture in the ELT books used in Spain.. The paper concludes by including some suggestions to address American Culture in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Spanish EFL Classrooms.

As the definite article in Romanian is of major importance in communication, this study focuses on how it is presented in Romanian textbooks for foreign learners, including Italian students. In the first part of the text I approach the definite article from a theoretical standpoint. I deliver my findings in tables so that the distinctions between various textbooks will be easy to follow. In the second part I employ an applied approach as I am interested in commenting on foreign students’ errors in their process of learning Romanian, and in proposing a series of exercises which may help them understand the correct usage of Romanian noun phrases in which definite and indefinite articles occur. I reach the conclusion that it is imperative: to present grammatical information gradually, from simple to complex issues; to explain both the similarities and the differences between Romanian (foreign language) and the students’ native language (Italian), by offering students contrastive explanations; and to create exercises in which noun phrases are put in contexts thus underlining the definite article’s functionality in an effective and correct manner.

The aim of this paper is to address the issue of teaching politeness in textbooks dedicated to learners of Italian as a foreign language. It is assumed that in today’s ever-changing world, full of conflicts and challenges of various kinds, polite communication has become of increasing importance as it helps overcome differences between the participants of the act of communication and promote a peaceful coexistence. Politeness is a phenomenon particularly sensitive to the situational context: the forms considered appropriate vary according to the parameters such as place, channel, age or status of the interactants. Since the complexity of politeness and the variability of its exponents make it difficult to teach, the purpose of this research is to analyze if and how the current textbooks of Italian deal with this aspect of communicative competence. The paper examines which aspects of politeness are taught and with what methods. The analysis is based on the selected textbooks of Italian published in Italy and Poland, in order to compare their approaches.

Regardless of one's gastronomic persuasion, the point of the questions above have nothing to do with food; rather, they have to do with language. Even if a person speaks no German, French or Italian, words like wienerschnitzel, vinaigrette, and cappucino are very likely part of his or her vocabulary, the result of contact between speakers of English and those of other languages, leading to the introduction of foreign words into English. Although this little culinary example is not by itself significant, it does represent a phenomenon that is extremely widespread throughout the world, since contact between speakers of different languages is the rule rather than the exception. Thus, language contact and its consequences constitute a very rich area of linguistic inquiry.

This paper analyses, from the perspective of critical discourse analysis and critical pedagogy, the representation of gender hierarchy in two representative Italian as a foreign language textbooks, published between 2002 and 2019. The aim is to examine whether asymmetric power relations are reproduced or reversed through the representation of professions attributed to male and female characters, in order to obtain meaningful data about the approach adopted by the authors and publishing houses. Specifically, we aim to determine whether a progressive and egalitarian tendency in the perception and representation of women and men in the professional sphere can be identified. The analysis reveals significant differences in the approach adopted in the two textbooks and consequently in how gender hierarchies and roles in the professional sphere are constructed. Due to the absence of a gender-sensitive approach, the Qui Italia textbook reproduces and naturalises asymmetric power relations between women and men in the professional sphere. In contrast, the Dieci A1 textbook emerges as an educational material that challenges traditional gender roles in the professional sphere and offers alternative and egalitarian models. The results suggest that progressive trends regarding gender equality in educational materials have evolved over time and that a gender approach is increasingly implemented and valued.

This article attempts to characterize three textbooks for learning the language of business and economics in terms of the presence of elements developing intercultural competences. Two textbooks for learning Italian and one for learning English were analyzed: (1) Italiano per economisti, (2) L'italiano in azienda, (3) Market Leader. Intermediate business English. The above-mentioned titles were published in the years 2002-2003, which allowed to eliminate possible differences resulting from the changing over time approach to the phenomenon of intercultural language education. The aim of the study is to identify the elements developing intercultural competences, their qualitative and quantitative characteristics, to discuss the differences in the approach in Italian and English-language texts and to indicate the possibility of using selected solutions in the new teaching materials. This is important as research shows that contacts with foreign cultures alone do not naturally lead to the development of intercultural competence (Sobkowiak, 2015: 64, Budzanowska-Drzewiecka and Motyl-Adamczyk, 2016: 56). The analysis covered non-verbal communication (gestures), stereotypes, proverbs and sayings, rules of linguistic politeness. From the glottodidactic point of view, the proposed types of exercises and the connection of (inter)cultural competences with other communicative competences will be analyzed. The main hypothesis verified during the analyzes assumes that the concept of intercultural language education, although it does not appear as a notion on the pages of textbooks, is an important component of the didactic process in materials for learning the business language, and the approach to interculturality may differ depending on the target culture and status of the foreign language taught (Italian vs English, modern lingua franca).

Learners should be intercultural speakers in foreign language teaching that promotes the intercultural dimension. In mastering the intercultural competencies, students are expected to be able to position themselves based on the background of their origin cultures and the culture that they learn in intercultural situations. This study aimed to find out how teaching the intercultural competencies was implemented in the course of Indonesian as a Foreign Language (BIPA), especially at the beginner level. This study investigated the intercultural teaching through textbooks, classroom observation, cultural program, and assessment used for the beginner course at the Institution X. The results of the analysis showed that the textbooks used contain themes of intercultural learning for the survival needs of novice students. The results of the classroom observation also showed that intercultural teaching was well executed. However, the results of the field trip observations that were part of the cultural program showed that the activities were not integrated with language learning. Besides, the results of the assessment analysis indicated that the exercise books and the tests used were not considered as the intercultural aspects. Therefore, this study is expected to provide input for intercultural teaching in BIPA courses, especially at the beginner level.

This paper is a condensed presentation of the phonetics and phonology of Standard Italian, compared to the most prestigious local accents, viz. those of Florence, Milan and Rome. Historically based on the Florentine pronunciation, and traditionally identified with it, Standard Italian is nowadays used by trained speakers such as stage actors and (but less and less so) radio and TV speakers. The present paper aims at depicting the most salient features of Standard Italian, still a matter of primary reference in language courses, comparing them with the characteristic features of the three most prominent local varieties, with which the foreign learner is most likely to be confronted. All traditional (and sometimes widely debated) issues of Italian phonetics/phonology are addressed in the most ecumenical setting possible.

This paper investigates how Italian native speakers express surprise in English as their second language on Facebook. A qualitative study was conducted on a corpus of forty English utterances by Italian native speakers conveying surprise and two control corpora composed of forty Italian and forty English native speakers’ expressions. First, a systemic approach will be adopted: by analysing the order in which the speaker reacts to, comments on, and wonders about new information, the objective is to determine a pattern peculiar to the verbal expression of surprise, and to ascertain how the mother tongue and the language-learning background are influential when expressing an instinctive reaction such as surprise in a foreign language. Attention will then be paid to the lexical expression of surprise. In particular, the analysis will focus on the features specific to non-native speakers (i.e. use of verbs and code-switching), on the codes peculiar to CMC (i.e. smileys and punctuation), and on how these codes are employed to convey surprise disruption, valence and intensity. By examining all these aspects, this research examines how English non-native speakers express surprise in chats.

Arabic learning for foreign speakers is not the same as for native speakers. Therefore, innovation is needed, including integrating teaching materials. This study aims to uncover the integration model of Arabic textbooks by describing the forms, influencing factors, and implications that have arisen from the development of Arabic. This research approach is qualitative with the type of case study. Data mining is carried out using observation, interviews, and documentation. The data analysis method is discriminatory-qualitative. The results of this study show that (1) the form of textbook integration is carried out by combining two textbooks, selecting the appropriate theme, and evaluating separately (2) Supporting factors are competent teachers, dormitories, language coaching, and the use of Arabic. Meanwhile, the inhibiting factors are the diversity of students' abilities, dense activities, and lack of examples. Finally, (3) the impact caused is the realization of the environment, increasing abilities, and being able to make students happy to learn Arabic. Therefore, this study concludes that language learning innovation can be carried out by integrating textbooks from various relevant sources per the objectives.

Most studies in the field of synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) deal with interactions between language learners, while interactions between native speakers (NS) and learners have not been explored to the same extent, particularly to ascertain whether chatting with NS can provide a pedagogically sound bridge to conversation. Through the analysis of interactions within a NS Italian chatline, this paper considers whether the chatline environment can act as a bridge to conversational Italian by providing the same opportunities for second language acquisition reputedly offered by face-to-face interaction. Italian NS chatline discourse is analysed for its conversational ‘flavour’ by considering variety of Italian, range of topics, questions, discourse markers, feedback tokens and negotiations. The findings of this study suggest that NS chat discourse can provide learners with exposure to colloquial and regional varieties of Italian, which are generally unavailable in language textbooks. Furthermore, NS chatline discourse offers learners a type of informal conversational practice which also includes negotiation of meaning, thus confirming its role in promoting language learning.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the understandability of an accounting textbooks written in English and the language learning motivation of international students. Previous research assumed that native speakers of a language and second-language speakers would understand a given accounting text similarly and little attempt has been made to ascertain any individual differences in users’ capacity to read and understand a foreign language. Design/methodology/approach The 107 participants in this study comprised of full-time English as a Second Language postgraduate commerce students studying at a major Australian university. The authors used two-part questionnaire to examine the motivation of participants and the understandability of an accounting textbook using the Cloze test. Findings The results suggest that most international students have difficulty in understanding the textbook narratives used in this study. Furthermore, the results show that students’ motivation to learn a foreign language impacts on the understandability of an accounting textbook. Practical implications This study will help the educators, textbook publishers and students to understand the needs of ESL students. It is expected to provide guidance for authors and instructors to enhance the effectiveness of the accounting courses. Originality/value The accounting literature shows that there have been efforts by accounting researchers to measure the understandability of accounting texts or narratives. This research provided valuable insights of the learning challenges of international students and valuable recommendations to educators and publishers to enhance the delivery.

As the demand for English language skills among non-native speakers globally has grown steadily so too has the number of ‘global textbooks’ for ELT aimed at a world market. Concurrently, critical perspectives of the expansion of English have begun to challenge the view that native speaker contexts ‘own’ English. Based on the aforementioned, and on reflective approaches to culture, our objective is to analyze critically the representations of speakers of English as a second or foreign language offered by two global ELT textbooks, to discuss the issues of essentialization and reproduction of stereotypes about the “non-native” speakers of English and their sociocultural characteristics in the constructed image. To achieve this purpose, we apply a methodology based on a sociocognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Van Dijk, 2013), the concept of sociocultural knowledge as stated by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and critical perspectives of culture according to Holliday, Kullman, and Hyde (2004). Our findings indicate that, though the books include ‘non-native’ speakers in an attempt to address multiculturalism, their representation is generic, portraying a reified image of their sociocultural traits and presenting diversity mostly through national labels.

<span lang="EN-US">Teaching compliment expression might be challenging for Indonesian EFL teacher, especially presenting compliment responses in some certain context of situation. The present study aims at investigating the compliment response strategies in some learning resources used by English teachers in Indonesia. The subjects of this study are the two EFL textbooks written by non-native English speakers and the supplementary materials derived from two Youtube channels and two materials from online learning websites created by native English speakers</span><span lang="IN">.</span><span lang="EN-US">The findings revealed accepting was the common compliment response strategy represented in all learning resources. it is also noted that the supplementary materials have various compliment response strategies completed with the meta-pragmatic information on each dialogue. The study implied that the EFL students should be equipped with pragmatic and sociolinguistic information in order to achieve the successful communication. </span>

<span lang="EN-US">Teaching compliment expression might be challenging for Indonesian EFL teacher, especially presenting compliment responses in some certain context of situation. The present study aims at investigating the compliment response strategies in some learning resources used by English teachers in Indonesia. The subjects of this study are the two EFL textbooks written by non-native English speakers and the supplementary materials derived from two Youtube channels and two materials from online learning websites created by native English speakers</span><span lang="IN">.</span><span lang="EN-US">The findings revealed accepting was the common compliment response strategy represented in all learning resources. it is also noted that the supplementary materials have various compliment response strategies completed with the meta-pragmatic information on each dialogue. The study implied that the EFL students should be equipped with pragmatic and sociolinguistic information in order to achieve the successful communication. </span>

This paper addresses the topic of adult acquisition of nominal agreement in Italian, a crucial issue in teaching Italian as Second/Foreign Language. Building on a corpus containing spontaneous and semi-spontaneous production data from two advanced L2-speakers of Italian, I show that nominal agreement can be problematic even in the last stages of the acquisition process. The discussion of the instances of missing agreement in the corpus suggests that these are not due to a missing knowledge of the agreement rules in Italian, but instead on processing and production. In particular, some contexts prove to be more difficult than others: gender agreement (i.e., agreement with feminine nouns) is more difficult than number agreement, and the presence of two or more modifiers that refer to the same noun increases the error rate. Another difficulty is offered by the cases in which an item external to the determiner phrase (DP) has to agree with the subject of the clause. All these issues are tackled from a teacher’s perspective: I highlight how the various contexts could be addressed and considered in the classroom, in order to help the learners to improve their production. Therefore, this paper argues that the best way to tackle this issue is by coupling knowledge of the formal rules of the language and of the acquisitional process with practical application in the context of second/foreign language teaching.

This study aims to suggest a checklist for teachers and researchers to analyze English as a second or foreign language textbooks from a sociolinguistic perspective. In the literature there is not a checklist or framework by which English textbooks can be evaluated considering the sociolinguistics issues raised in this study. After obtaining expert opinion and a piloting on 8 textbooks used in state schools in Turkey, a checklist consisting 6 criteria was suggested. Then, the check list was applied on the 9th grade English book ReLearn (Karamil & Birincioglu Kaldar, 2019) used in state schools in Turkey to demonstrate how the checklist can be utilized. The findings suggest that from a sociolinguistic perspective, the book in focus occasionally conforms to the sociolinguistic concerns while it needs some qualitative improvements. Improvements in providing genuine speakers of non-native and non-standard accents of English rather than using standard accent vocalizations for the speakers that are depicted as non-natives can be a primary suggestion and at the same time, the textbook should focus on different ways of life and perspectives instead of mostly providing intercultural knowledge such as cities or historic places. Finally, the textbook should pay more attention to the linguistic ecology in Turkey and adjust its contents so as to compensate for the foreign language status of English in Turkey. Accordingly, this study contributes to the literature by providing a checklist to evaluate textbooks systematically with regard to essential sociolinguistic issues and it demonstrates the application of the checklist.

The improvement of second language learners' linguistic performance seems a tortuous process especially for the advanced English learners in China. Although native speakers give their witty sayings and sparkling comments, the majority of Chinese students could only rigidly apply English phrases they have learned from the textbooks very passively. Guided by foreign monographs in English language acquisition, a learner-centred second language teaching material is designed, underpinning the principles of providing authentic input for learners, drawing learners' attention to the linguistic features of input, providing opportunities for learners to communicate in target language, fostering learners' autonomy and offering guidance for autonomic learning. The activities designed in this teaching material have especially catered to the needs of advanced English learners, by providing them with more input resources, more feedback as well as more guidance in self-evaluation and self-learning after class for their further improvement. The material design would enlighten modern textbook compilers in guiding advanced second language learners' autonomic learning.

The primary aim of this study was to account for the finding that late bilinguals produce longer English sentences than early bilinguals. In Experiment 1, Italians who immigrated to Canada either between the age of 2–13 years (“early bilinguals”) or 15–28 years (“late bilinguals”) repeated matched English and Italian sentences following an aural model. The early bilinguals produced shorter English than Italian sentences, whereas the late bilinguals showed the opposite pattern. The same countervailing pattern was evident in Experiment 2, where bilinguals shortened sentences by 20% when instructed to repeat sentences as rapidly as possible. Subgroups of bilinguals who reported using Italian oftenM=46% Italian use) but not seldom (M=8%) were found to have produced significantly longer English sentences than native English (NE) speakers did. The results were interpreted to mean that the late bilinguals produced longer English sentences than the early bilinguals because they needed to expend more resources to suppress their Italian subsystem than the early bilinguals. The perceptual effect of sentence duration was evaluated in Experiment 3, where pairs of English sentences differing in duration were presented to NE-speaking listeners for foreign accent ratings. A 10% shortening caused sentences spoken by late bilinguals to sound less foreign accented but it caused sentences spoken by early bilinguals to sound more foreign accented.

In this paper, I reflect on a project I conducted at University of California Berkeley with four colleagues teaching Chinese, Hebrew, Italian and Japanese who decided to engage their students in some of the political controversies in which the native speakers of these languages are engaged in their respective countries. These four teachers are highly educated, experienced native speakers, and they are all professional non-senate members of the faculty. Following the students’ wishes they focused respectively on the following topics: racism against Asians in the US; the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; immigrant refugees to Italy from Muslim countries; and how to remember Hiroshima. Given the low level of language proficiency of their classes, the teachers’ common professional practice was to elicit and capitalize on their students’ emotional involvement. However, while the teachers engaged the learners emotionally into seeing these conflicts from the native speakers’ perspective, they were hampered by their very professional practice from delving into the complex political meanings of the events discussed. I reflect on the reasons for this seeming lack of translingual activism and what it means for foreign language teaching as professional and political practice.

This study aims to investigate Kuwaiti parents' views and opinions towards introducing native speakers' and international cultures into their children's' EFL textbooks in public schools in the light of recent debates that discuss the relationship between culture and English language teaching. It also intends to explore and discover their perceptions towards the current cultural content being taught in Kuwait public elementary schools. For this purpose, questionnaires were distributed among Kuwaiti parents whom their children study in the government public schools followed by semi-structured interviews to get more detailed and in-depth information about the topic discussed. The findings of this study show that the vast majority had negative opinions and views towards exposing their children to native speaker's cultures for social and religious reasons. One of which is their underlying concern about the negative impacts of native speakers' content on their children's cultural and national identity. However, most of them agreed their children learn EFL through the prism of the international multicultural cultural content to prepare them use the language in different cultural contexts when they grow up. The results also showed that most of them preferred to keep the current ELT syllabus which uses the host cultural content rather than replacing it with the native speakers' one for the same reasons and also in view of growing awareness of the role played by culture in the EFL classroom which propound the nature of the Kuwaiti society of being conservative and cautious.

Abstract This article reports empirical evidence of constructional priming effects in L2 learners of English and Italian. The well-known pioneering experiment carried out by Bencini and Goldberg (2000) with L1 speakers of English paved the way for our investigation. We employed the same protocol to ascertain whether constructions have an ontological status also in the mind of L2 learners. We conducted experiments with four groups of learners whose language proficiency levels correspond to the B1 and B2 levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The results we obtained in our cross-linguistic experiments demonstrate that learners are reliant on constructional templates when they are required to produce linguistic generalizations.

Textbooks play a crucial role in language teaching particularly in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms since they are considered as an important and primary source of linguistic input. EFL textbooks are expected to develop EFL students’ knowledge, no difference in linguistic or pragmatic competences (Gholami & Mahboobrezaei, 2011). As some scholars believed pragmatics is the fifth skill in language learning, then, it is essential to incorporate it like an integral component of EFL textbooks. However, there exists little knowledge on how well pragmatic perspectives of language are taken into consideration in expanding EFL textbooks generally and Iranian English for specific purposes (ESP) textbooks particularly. In fact, ESP textbooks are written by non-native authors and are considered as unauthentic textbooks. This study, therefore, attempted to explore pragmatic knowledge incorporation into ESP textbooks that have been published for computer engineers by SAMT publication as university textbooks. This study was also an attempt to investigate the frequency and rate of ‘politeness principle’ and ‘irony principle’ from the subcategories of inter-personal rhetoric as the umbrella term in two textbooks in the field of psychology. Book A was an authentic book written by natives for native speakers; however, book B was written by Iranians writers for Iranian university students (SAMT book). This paper then presented some results abstracted from the whole research project. EFL teachers and researchers whose professional and academic interests lie in syllabus design and ESP field may benefit from the findings of the study.

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: We examined whether categorization of inanimate objects is influenced by learning a language with a different type of gender system. Previous research has examined speakers of languages without grammatical gender (English and Hungarian) who were learning a language with grammatical gender (Spanish and French). By contrast, we examined speakers of a language with grammatical gender (Lithuanian) learning a language with a structurally different gender system (Italian, Russian or German). Design/Methodology/Approach: We compared four groups (Lithuanians speaking only English and Lithuanian, Lithuanians learning Italian, Lithuanians learning Russian, Lithuanians learning German) in the completion of a voice attribution task where subjects are asked to attribute either the voice of a man or a woman to inanimate objects. Data and Analysis: We tested 128 subjects (32 for each group). The first group included Lithuanians who spoke only Lithuanian and English, and served as baseline for Lithuanians with a single grammatical gender system (Group B). The other three groups included Lithuanians that were proficient in either Italian (Group ITA), Russian (Group RUS) or German (Group GER). Data were analysed by means of mixed effects generalized linear models created using R glmer() function. We conducted a series of logistic regressions examining the following fixed effects: sex, age, distinction ‘artefact vs. natural object’, Lithuanian gender, proficiency in the relevant foreign language and the gender of each item in the relevant foreign language (i.e. either Italian, Russian or German). Findings/Conclusions: Our results suggest that the four groups behaved somewhat differently and that belonging to one group or the other was a significant predictor of a participant’s choices. It seems, however, that gender in the respective foreign language did not affect a participant’s choices. By and large, differences between the four groups did not mirror gender asymmetries between the four languages, yet learning a foreign language did appear to interfere with the standard pattern exhibited by baseline Lithuanians who had the highest frequency of attributions congruent with Lithuanian gender. Originality: Recent studies showed that the effects of grammatical gender on categorization might not be limited to native language, but could apply also to a second language acquired later in life. Whereas previous research has examined subjects speaking an L1 without grammatical gender, we followed Kurinski and Sera’s suggestion and tested native speakers of a gendered language learning an L2 with a structurally different gender system. More specifically, we compared native speakers of a language with two genders (Lithuanian) learning either a system with three genders (Russian), a system with three genders and gender-marking articles (German) or a system with two genders and gender-marking articles (Italian). Our goal was to understand whether language effects on cognition are influenced not only by specific properties of the L1 – as suggested by Kurinski et al., who noted a difference between English and Hungarian learners – but also by specific properties of the L2 gender system and by the typological gap between the L1 and the L2 gender system. Significance/Implications: We asked whether we would find language-specific effects suggesting that learning a foreign language systematically ‘pulls’ standard categorization patterns towards the L2 gender system. Our findings do not support this idea. However, our results do suggest that learning a foreign language weakens the strength of the link between each item and its gender.

This bibliographical study offers a list of the first printed language manuals in Western Europe expressly designed to teach a particular foreign language to speakers of a particular tongue. Hence, the study lists references to sixteenth-century grammars, dictionaries and language handbooks with the possible linguistic combinations of Italian, French, Spanish and English, the first three being the most popular modern languages in sixteenth-century Western Europe and hence the most representative ones offering an insight into the foreign language learning map of the time. The bibliographical study is preceded by an introduction to the manner in which foreign tongues were taught and learned in the early modern period, and is completed by a selection of references to secondary sources that have been researched on each linguistic combination.

Abstract: The development of intercultural competence as a personal quality presupposes the inclusion of the communicative component in its various dimensions. This integration naturally finds expression in the term intercultural communicative competence, which has gained considerable popularity over the last two decades. Mastering a language, incl. as a foreign, should focus not only on its linguistic aspects, but also on the dimensions of culture through which the language manifests itself, reflected on the personal identity of its speakers in its quality as mother language. This should be presented in one form or another in textbooks for learning a language, especially a foreign one, insofar as the acquired information creates the preconditions for a better understanding of the culture expressed through it and more successful communication with its speakers. It is also extremely important to achieve a pragmatic orientation of the learning content, which can further motivate the acquisition of the "other" language in the context of the need for efficiency in everyday relationships. Keywords: intercultural communicative competence, pedagogical, practical dimensions.

ABSTRACTThis study examined the English vowel productions of 240 native speakers of Italian who had arrived in Canada at ages ranging from 2 to 23 years and 24 native English speakers from the same community. The productions of 11 vowels were rated for degree of foreign accent by 10 listeners. An increase in perceived accentedness as a function of increasing age of arrival was observed on every vowel. Not one of the vowels was observed to be produced in a consistently native-like manner by the latest-arriving learners, even though they had been living in Canada for an average of 32 years. However, high intelligibility (percent correct identification) scores were obtained for the same set of productions. This was true even for English vowels that have no counterpart in Italian.

Over the past decade, the topic of war has been a key one in various scientific discourses. Linguistic studies are also increasingly focusing on it. But today, this topic is still poorly studied in linguodidactics, particularly in teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language (UFL). This confirms the significance of this paper. The article analyzes the training materials (texts and exercises) for teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language (UFL), which reveal the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war, starting from 2014 to the present day. Linguistic and cultural content of the new textbooks in UFL is considered. The focus is on the educational materials of the textbook “The Key to Ukraine: Cities and People” in two parts (B2–C1 levels) and the textbook “Catch Skovoroda” (B1–B2 levels). Both books were prepared by the authors of the International Institute for Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations of Lviv Polytechnic National University. These textbooks take into account the historical and political events taking place in Ukrainian society and influencing the development of the Ukrainian language, in particular its lexical system. The article analyzes texts for reading and listening, new military vocabulary given in them, pre- and post-text exercises and tasks aimed at developing communication skills. Studying these materials will help foreign speakers to master military neologisms faster, ensure understanding of the news content in Ukrainian media, promote pro-Ukrainian narratives, and allow them to communicate on this topic in various fields. In addition, the realization of the topic of the Russian-Ukrainian war in UFL textbooks will help foreigners to develop socio-cultural competence about Ukrainians in the most difficult period of their lives and will evoke a sense of empathy for the heroic Ukrainian people. Key words: Ukrainian as a foreign language, linguodidactics, foreign language audience, Russian-Ukrainian war, textbook “The Key to Ukraine: Cities and People”, textbook “Catch Skovoroda”.

In this article, the authors have characterized the main directions of methodological search in teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language at the present stage: the experience of teaching this course at some Ukrainian institutions of higher education has been analyzed. The potential of teaching Ukrainian on the basis of the methodological approach / language skills / lexical topics has been specified in this paper. The authors have elucidated the criteria offered as indicative for designing textbooks and guidelines for teaching non-native speakers or foreigners. Particular attention is paid to factors that cause significant public response to learning and teaching Ukrainian considering the current geopolitical situation in Europe and in the world. The paper describes current trends in teaching Ukrainian and offers prospects for creating further methodological support.

The article examines the ways intercultural aspects are dealt with in textbooks for learning business language (in the broad sense) in French, Spanish and Italian. The authors of the textbooks analyzed represent different approaches, both at the level of the declared learning objectives and at the level of the techniques applied. Among the textbooks analyzed there are also those oriented towards the development of intercultural skills. Their goal is not so much to prepare the learner to evolve in a given culture, but to make them aware of the differences between their own and the target culture(s)and to be able to mediate between the representatives of each of them. Although in a textbook for the teaching/learning of a foreign language for specialized purposes, intercultural training preparing for “culture shock” must necessarily be limited, the examples observed show that educators aware of the importance of this issue can offer interesting solutions and proposals.