ITALIAN AS A SECOND LANGUAGE FOR CHINESE STUDENTS AT SECONDARY SCHOOLS Linguistic, cultural and affective implications for teaching intervention

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to identify the most salient and widely spread challenges that Chinese students face while learning Italian as a second language (L2) in secondary public schools and, consequently, to consider which may be the most suitable didactic practices to attend to their specific needs. The first chapter focuses on the Chinese learners’ linguistic acquisition of Italian. The second one addresses some significant divergencies existing between Chinese and Italian cultural perspectives on education, and the importance of the promotion of intercultural awareness among teachers and students. The third chapter examines the most common affective struggles that the migrant teenager experiences in the school context, and reflects on the choice of congruent teaching approaches. To investigate empirically the theorical premises of the first three sections of this research, the last chapter discusses the results of two surveys: one collected Chinese secondary school students’ impressions, preferences and emotions concerning their process of second language learning; the other inspected Italian L2 teachers’ observations and analysis regarding their experiences with Chinese pupils and gathers the didactic practices they believed proved to be more effective for their linguistic development and social integration.