The phenomenon of "Inglese scolastico" in Southern Italy: secondary school students' perception of English language learning and teaching.

Abstract

The thesis is composed of five chapters, which are divided into two parts: the first theoretical part concerns the three components of the teaching action, that is, the language, the teacher and the student; the second experimental part is dedicated to the presentation of the research instrument, that is, an existing questionnaire adapted to the purpose of the research, and to the analysis of the data from which conclusions are drawn. The research, conducted on a random sample of 307 students attending the last year of secondary schools in Marsala, investigates the perception that students have of English language, which is often referred to as "school-level English", in Italian “inglese scolastico”. The reasons for investigating the content of "school-level English" can be found in the world and European rankings, where the position of the Italian linguistic situation is low, but the interesting aspect is that at a national level there is a gap that divides North and South from a linguistic point of view. In Southern Italy, in fact, the knowledge of the English language is even lower and the purpose of the research is to investigate how English language is taught and learned. This survey was carried out at the beginning of the second semester of the last year in order for the students to have a more complete and solid view of their language education, therefore, by filling out the questionnaire the students had the opportunity to reflect on the teaching of English and the results achieved. As a result, the data provides an overview of what happens in the classroom during English classes and, therefore, how the language is proposed in the schools in Southern Italy, particularly in the city of Marsala.