Second Language Acquisition in Adulthood from the Perspective of Immigrants: A Specific Teaching Methodology Including the Use of Technologies, a Case Study in Quarto d'Altino.

Abstract

This work examines the second language acquisition of adult learners in the context of full immersion and focuses, in particular, on immigrants living in Italy. After the 1980s, Italy has become a land of immigration. Today there are millions of immigrant workers coming from Southern and Eastern countries in search of a better life. They are constantly exposed to the Italian language and culture both in everyday life and in the workplace, thus it is necessary that they become fluent in the language and culture in order to thrive in their new host country. When fully immersed, immigrants learn a L2 in a spontaneous manner but many of them decide to attend courses in which they are unfortunately still taught like children. Actually, in the past it was commonly believed that adults had nothing more to learn after their initial education because they were considered as accomplished learners. As a consequence, little research has been done within the framework of adult education. The lack of a specific theory for adult learning explains the reason why pedagogical theories designed for children have been applied to adults. In the last decades, this situation has improved with the development of adult continuing education, and the gap, if not filled, has at least been narrowed with new opportunities to learn to improve one's competences and abilities. Thus, new kinds of learners have emerged arousing changes in motivations, teaching and contexts of use. Thanks to recent studies, especially in language education, the particular characteristics of adult learners have been identified and a specific theory with a Life-Long and Life-Wide Learning perspective dedicated to adults has been developed, namely andragogy. The thesis is articulated in two parts, the first one gives the theoretical framework of my study and is composed of three chapters with three objectives: first, to provide more information about the characteristics of immigrant adult learners within a full immersion context (Chapter 1); second, to propose a specific methodology for teaching them a L2 (Chapter 2); and third, to promote the use of technologies which positively motivate them during the lessons (Chapter 3). The second part is composed of one chapter (Chapter 4) describing an empirical study demonstrating in which way some technologies used in adult teaching increase their motivation. Regarding the terminology used in this thesis, it is important to define that acquisition does not refer to Krashen's definition but to the general psycholinguistic process of acquiring a second language.