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The present contribution is part of a wider research project whose overall goal is to define the construct of language-teaching methodology interface in lecturing through English. This paper aims at exploring the interplay between the use of pragmatic strategies and non-standardness at the morphosyntax level in lectures conducted through English as the academic lingua franca in an Italian public university. In pursuing this aim, the main differences between findings from previous research carried out in Sweden and those obtained in the setting under investigation will be documented. Results indicate that pragmatic strategies are adopted quite often during lectures and lecturers show higher degrees of non-standard morphosyntax in their spoken production, compared to what happens in the Swedish context.

The internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions is a process conceived of not as an end in itself but as a means to improve the quality of education, research and services (De Wit and Leask 2015). However, one of the consequences of this phenomenon is that lecturers are often called on to embrace the challenge of teaching their subject through a foreign language without receiving formal training in this, especially in countries where English-taught programs are still in their infancy, such as Italy. With the aim of supporting academic staff in this transition, the Academic Lecturing programme has been set up in a medium-sized public university in the north-east of Italy: it is specifically designed for lecturers who teach their subject through English and aims to raise their awareness of the impact of the internationalisation process on teaching, the more extensive set of skills needed for teaching and learning in English, and the increased heterogeneity of the student population. The purpose of the programme is also to help participants try their hand at new teaching methods and new technologies as a means of making lessons more interactive, thus increasing their accessibility and making them more effective, and to help participants to improve their strategic use of English within their disciplinary field. The professional development programme will be reported in the light of both a brief description of the programme format—a course and a one-to-one support service—and the feedback received from participants in the various editions so far. This feedback will be used to inform the future development of the programme, with a view to encouraging increased collaboration between language specialists and content specialists (Lyster 2017, Wingate 2018), thus further addressing the need for a more integrated use of language and content in university lectures.

The role of CLIL teachers is crucial for the quality and effectiveness of CLIL programs. In order to fully understand the teacher’s role in CLIL, ‘the hidden side of the work’ is of pivotal importance: cognitive aspects related to what they ‘know, believe, and think’ exert a substantial influence on how they actually teach. Given the linguistic and methodological nature of CLIL, teachers’ awareness of the methodological features of CLIL appears to be particularly relevant in this respect. Based on the Italian context – where a recent School Reform has made CLIL compulsory in the final year(s) of high school – an investigation on the differences in terms of methodological awareness has been carried out between teachers who have been teaching in CLIL since before it became compulsory in the last year of high school (in 2014/15) and teachers who started teaching in CLIL as from 2014/15. Implications will be discussed and suggestions for practice and further research will be offered.

In this article, we will explore the work of several scholars who, albeit operating in different contexts, have adopted Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory as a starting point for their research. First of all, Vygotsky’s work will be briefly presented; second, Barnes and Mercer’s research on L1 and cognition will be commented; third, Swain’s research in immersion contexts will be shortly outlined; finally, the CLIL environment will be explored. The fil rouge which bonds all these contributions is the belief according to which language does not just ‘carry’ information but shapes thought.

In order to offer a picture of the construct of language teacher motivation, this paper is subdivided into two main sections. In the first part, the main framework for exploring this specific construct is presented and, considering it as mostly social, insights have been drawn from Atkinson’s sociocognitive approach, from complexity theory and from theories of mediation. In the second part, the teacher’s mind is investigated and the scaffolding for its description is provided by the triadic distinction between cognition, affect and motivation.

Recensione

An investigation was carried out on pupils who attend classes in rural secondary middle schools in the north of the province of Pordenone in order to determine their motivation in language learning. It was a mixed-method research, since quantitative questionnaires and qualitative interviews have been adopted in order to collect the data. The research is interpretative in nature because the data have been interpreted only through the use of descriptive statistical methods. Four aspects have emerged from the study. First, lack of interest in the English course seems to be the main problem regarding the pupils’ language learning motivation. Second, pupils are not exposed to English sufficiently in their everyday lives. Third, the position of Second Year pupils, who represent a sort of grey area, would appear to be the most critical of the Middle School pupils. Lastly, the position of the female pupils who, in general, tend to be more demanding than the male pupils.

Attitudes are learned and one's personal experience and social environment play a role in shaping them. Teachers in particular exert a significant impact on the formation of students' language attitudes. This study targets prospective teachers. It is a replication of a survey whose data collection took place 18 years ago in the Basque Autonomous Community. It explores future teachers' perceived competence, habits of language use and attitudes towards Basque, Spanish and English. The sample consisted of 576 participants. Data collection was carried out by means of the same questionnaire and following the same procedure employed in the original study. Data were analysed using inferential statistics; significant results, with medium and large effect sizes were obtained. Results indicate that Basque is mainly linked with the education domain, whereas Spanish is dominant in leisure time. Attitudes are highly positive for all three languages, as considered from both a monolingual and a multilingual perspective. While participants expressed the most favourable attitudes towards Basque, the most noticeable improvements were detected for English. With this study, we wish to contribute to the discussion about multilingualism within a multilingual education system, where a minority language co-exists with a national majority language and a global lingua franca.

This contribution reports on the findings of a project whose aim was to explore the construct of the language-teaching methodology interface (LTMI) in lecturing through English. Evidence of its existence will be provided and implications for teacher training will be considered. On the assumption that the LTMI can be characterised by the co-existence of a practical and a cognitive dimension, in previous contributions we focused on such elements. First, following Björkman ([2011] "Pragmatic Strategies in English as an Academic Lingua Franca: Ways of Achieving Communicative Effectiveness?." Journal of Pragmatics 43 (4): 950-964), we carried out an intensive analysis of a number of observed lectures with the aim of exploring the interplay between the use of pragmatic strategies and non-standardness at the morphosyntax level in EMI lectures in an Italian context. Afterwards, through qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, we sought to uncover those conditions lying underneath observable behaviour. In the present contribution, first, the extensive analysis of observed lectures is described. Second, steps taken within the framework of "fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis" (Ragin [2000] "Fuzzy-set Social Science." Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, [2008] "Redesigning Social Inquiry. Fuzzy Sets and Beyond." Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press) to analyse all findings obtained are illustrated. Empirical findings seem to support the claim according to which the two dimensions of "language" and "teaching methodology" do have blurred boundaries: the results obtained may therefore be interpreted as a first confirmation of the existence of the multifaceted construct of the LTMI.

Since educators play a decisive role in the formation of language attitudes, this study analyses perceived competence, habits of language use and attitudes towards three languages in contact harboured by prospective teachers. Our research replicates a 20-year-old study and is comparative, as it parallels two European regions: the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain, and Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy. The sample was made up of 553 participants. Quantitative data were collected by means of the original questionnaire. Significant results were obtained, with strong effect sizes. As for the minority language, our results show that while Basque is mainly linked with the educational domain and tends to be used more often with younger people, the situation is different for Friulian, which is virtually absent from the educational domain and tends to be used in exchanges with older people. The status of majority language is especially true for Italian in FVG, which, in addition to being the main language in education, is predominantly used by future teachers in all domains of their daily life. As for English, our findings seem to indicate that its general position is becoming stronger, and this trend may be maintained in both contexts in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]