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Baldo, G. (2019). Italiano per stranieri. Semplificare, facilitare, adattare manuali scolastici disciplinari. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, pp. 168.

This essay deals with a series of strategies that second or foreign language learners adopt in an effort to avoid making predictable errors. One of the most significant and least studied aspects in the academic field is the type of strategies that are put in place to make changes in the planning of the discourse, when the elements are not available to cope with the event, the communication need or when a speaker wants to change subject from a little-known conversational or textual sector. We intend to examine the concept of competence with respect to performance, the role and type of errors, ending up eliciting a taxonomy of interventions by learners, aimed at avoiding errors in oral and written production.

This paper presents the results of a research on language educational practices related to the teaching of Italian as a second language (ISL), aimed at learners in the situation of vulnerability and disadvantage. In many contexts of welcoming, the need to reconcile the first reception practices relating to housing, sustenance and health, with the dimension of language teaching, is evident. The ISL teachers who work within emergency frameworks often experience a feeling of discomfort connected to the motivational dynamics: if the students receive the necessities of the essentials from those who deal with the reception and expect to stay in Italy for a short period of time, it is possible that there will not be intrinsic motivation for studying and exercising the language. The survey, divided into several operational phases, is based on a questionnaire submitted to the teaching staff that deals with the ISL education within the contexts of reception. The most significant aspect of the data analysis is the absence of communicative needs compared to the daily life of the students.

This article analyses the instruction on non-sexist use of the Italian language given by Italian language teachers at different levels of education (Nitti 2018). The objective of the research is to evaluate, via language models presented in class, the preparation of materials, and attitudes to correction, the level of engagement in the use of non-sexist language by teachers who transfer their personal orientation into their teaching practice. The survey was conceived as a follow-up to the Conference on Italian Language and Sexism, held at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia on 30 March 2017. Questions were formulated following Raccomandazioni per gli usi non sessisti della lingua by Alma Sabatini (1986) and proposals by academic institutions and territorial and legislative bodies. The research falls within the study of educational linguistics, and its aim is to approach contemporary linguistic phenomena through specific theoretical-applicative tools and paradigms of sociolinguistics (Fusco 2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay showcases the results of a survey conducted on a sample of Italian speakers which focused on their perception of languages. The research, carried out in the second half of 2019, has enabled corroborating the initial hypothesis about the existence of preconceptions and stereotypes associated with the perception of foreign languages and cultures (Elman & McClelland 1986) by Italian people. In particular, a questionnaire was used to clarify which adjectives are commonly associated with selected foreign languages, in order to identify certain trends and stereotypes. The survey is based on ethnolinguistic and language education studies (Cardona 2006), and was performed through data collection techniques used in ethnography and sociolinguistics (Tagliamonte 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous oesophageal rupture, also known as Boerhaave syndrome (BS), is a rare and potentially lethal pathological condition. BS recognition is difficult, while rapidity of diagnosis, along with extension of the lesion, affects type and outcome of treatment. BS was classically treated by thoracotomy, but laparoscopic (LS), thoracoscopic (TS) surgery, and nonsurgical procedures as endoscopic stent positioning or use of glues have been described. Still, there is no model treatment, and selection of the most appropriate therapeutic procedure is complex in the absence of standardised criteria. We successfully managed a patient affected with BS by LS approach and present our experience along with a review of treatment options so far described. Our treatment integrated positioning of an oesophageal isoperistaltic endoluminal drain (IED), that we routinely use in oesophageal sutures at risk of leakage, and of which there is no previous report in the setting of BS. A 68 year old man presented to our attention with true BS, suspected on chest-abdominal CT scan and confirmed by upper GI contrast swallow test, showing leakage of hydro-soluble contrast from the lower third of the oesophagus. Of note, pleural cavities appeared intact. We performed an urgent laparoscopy 12 hours after the onset of symptoms. Laparoscopic toilet of the inferior mediastinum and dual layer oesophageal repair with pedicled omental flap were complemented by positioning of IED, feeding jejunostomy and two tubular drains. The patient had a slow but consistent recovery where IED played as a means of oesophageal suture protection, until he could be discharged home. We think that, when integrity of the pleura is documented, LS should be priority choice to avoid contamination of the pleural cavities. We have to consider every type of oesophageal repair in BS at risk of failure, and every means of protection of the suture is opportune. In our patient the oesophageal suture, covered with a flap of omentum isolated on a pedicle, has also been protected from excessive oesophageal endoluminal pressures by means of a multi-fenestrated two way endooesophageal drain (IED, two way tube type Salem). Oesophageal drain has the finality of relieving tension and monitoring the healing of the oesophageal repair.