Abstract:
Recent studies have shown how pluralistic approaches to foreign language teaching can be useful in multilingual classroom in order to mobilise the whole linguistic repertoire of all students and to foster plurilingualism. Underling similarities rather than differences between different languages, Intercomprehension (IC) can be seen as an inclusive pluralistic approach, useful in multilingual contexts.
The present case study aims to compare the results of an IC test of a first group of Italian students (G1) belonging to the first class of a lower secondary school, who knows English as FL because they studied it at school, with the results of a second group of students (G2) belonging to the same class, who have a good level of Italian and are considered Special Needs for linguistic reasons, who studied English at school and who knows, as native speakers, another non-Romance language.
The IC test was based on a French article, that is a Romance language, unknown language for all students.
After the submission of the test, we can deduce that the G2 can use better IC strategies, that they have a more positive attitude toward a new language and that they are more aware of strategy used.
