Teaching L2 Italian lexicon to elementary-school Chinese students.An action research

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate which is the most effective teaching approach to teach lexicon to Chinese students. In particular we conducted an action research during a second language laboratory at an elementary school, within which we tried to investigate whether the activities on lexicon proposed were really effective with such particular type of students: young, second language learners at first stages of acquisition and Chinese. The action research was conducted over a period of three months, two lessons a week held together with the second language teacher, a cultural mediator. The data were collected through unstructured observations, questionnaires, diary account and structured activities on lexicon. Rather than answer the initial question, we found several criticality: starting from them, recommendations are given in order to foster an effective lexical approach with Chinese students.