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O artigo apresenta o projeto de ensino da produção escrita Osservare l’interlingua (Observar a interlíngua), que, desde 2007, envolveu dezenas de professores e centenas de alunos do ensino fundamental em Reggio Emilia (Itália) e região. Por meio de sessões de formação de professores e da atividade de pesquisa-ação conduzidas nas aulas, o projeto visa a promover uma educação linguística eficaz e inclusiva para todos os alunos e não somente para subgrupos específicos, como, por exemplo, estudantes monolíngues ou multilíngues, nativos ou não nativos, com habilidades de escrita mais ou menos desenvolvidas. O artigo ilustra os princípios teóricos e metodológicos que alicerçam as propostas didáticas do projeto, a partir da própria ideia de “interlíngua” que está no nome do projeto: para planejar e realizar percursos pedagógicos coerentescom as trajetórias evolutivas dos alunos, é necessário, antes de mais nada, partir da análise pontual das produções e das estratégias de escrita de cada um. Propõe-se uma avaliação de tipo formativo que valoriza a evolução do aprendizado, facilita a identificação das causas dos aspectos críticos e, consequentemente, permite o planejamento deintervenções didáticas pontuais. Além de apresentar a organização geral de Osservare l’interlingua e alguns de seus percursos pedagógicos, o artigo relata, de forma sintética, os principais resultados dos estudos experimentais que são periodicamente conduzidos sobre as produções orais e escritas das crianças, para verificar os efeitos das intervençõesdidáticas sobre as habilidades de escrita e sobre a motivação para escrever. Ambos os tipos de estudos confirmam a eficácia do projeto, que recebe também um retorno muito positivo por parte de todos os atores envolvidos (docentes, estudantes e famílias).

This study looks at the correlation between functional adequacy (FA), holistically assessed, and analytic linguistic measures, in a corpus of texts written by Italian monolingual and multilingual primary school pupils. Texts were first evaluated using the FA rating scales by Kuiken and Vedder (2017, 2018), plus one for Coherence & Cohesion from the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001′). They were then coded for a number of features directly bearing on FA and its subdimensions. Results show correlations between holistic scores and analytic measures, such as those between Content and the number of words or secondary idea units (r = .59 / .65). Others were less strong, yet going in the expected direction, e.g. more ambiguous referential expressions were negatively correlated to Comprehensibility. Correlations were generally stronger for monolingual than for multilingual children.

I bambini imparano a scrivere nella scuola primaria ed è importante riflettere su quali siano le strategie più efficaci per promuovere questo compito cognitivo complesso. Il volume presenta i risultati della sperimentazione Osservare l’interlingua, un progetto di didattica della scrittura che nel corso degli anni ha coinvolto decine di insegnanti e centinaia di alunni. Dopo avere offerto un’ampia panoramica teorica, il volume illustra i principi metodologici del progetto e presenta i risultati dello studio, che ha coinvolto sette classi sperimentali e sette di controllo. L’analisi dimostra che una didattica della scrittura basata sul lavoro di gruppo e su un approccio attivo e riflessivo produce vantaggi tangibili: i testi dei bambini coinvolti nel progetto sono più informativi, dettagliati, comprensibili, meglio articolati e coesi di quelli dei coetanei del gruppo di controllo. Inoltre, nelle classi sperimentali, gli alunni multilingui raggiungono risultati particolarmente positivi, e questo fa sì che diminuiscano le disuguaglianze.

The chapter presents the approach, materials and results of Osservare l’interlingua, an action-research project for primary and junior-high schools. Combining the principles of active teaching, cooperative learning and process writing with the Interlanguage approach to language education, the project developed teaching units for the whole class where everyone can contribute according to their abilities. Such materials have been gathered in a syllabus, and the project’s effectiveness has been investigated through a series of empirical studies. These show that good language education can increase the average performance level of the whole class while at the same time reducing the gaps among students.

Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) has received considerable attention over the last decades, inspiring a number of second language acquisition studies. This article examines the research from a critical epistemological point of view, starting from the Greek philosopher Cratylus, who concluded that remaining silent is the only way to be entirely coherent with the idea that everything is complex and dynamic. An alternative to this drastic conclusion may consist in ‘saying without saying too much’, that is, setting some limits to theorizing and empirical inquiry. Problems of description, prediction and generalization in a CDST framework are discussed, pointing to some open issues to be addressed by future research. Finally, some proposals are made for a more constructive research program, which may even involve abandoning the ‘CDST’ label.

Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency (CAF) have been identified as three important dimensions for the description of second language performance. They have been typically seen as dependent variables related to L2 development, on the one hand, and task features, on the other. A great number of measures for these constructs have been proposed over the years, often with little concern about their validity and comparability. The chapter reviews more recent proposals for valid and reliable operationalizations of the CAF dimensions, presents some exemplary studies employing these constructs and discusses their relevance for language testing and assessment.

Il capitolo presenta uno studio sperimentale sugli effetti di un percorso didattico di riflessione sulle versioni orali e scritte di testi narrativi. La sperimentazione educativa è stata proposta all’interno del progetto Osservare l’interlingua, promosso dal Comune di Reggio Emilia in collaborazione con l’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, che attualmente coinvolge 12 scuole primarie e 3 secondarie di primo grado, con 28 insegnanti e 32 classi, per un totale di circa 650 alunni. Il percorso didattico inizia con la narrazione orale e scritta di una storia a partire dalla visione di una sequenza video, tratta dalla versione cinematografica di T. Burton de La Fabbrica di Cioccolato di R. Dahl. Segue una serie di attività in cui gli alunni trascrivono le loro produzioni orali e le analizzano, confrontandole con quelle scritte e con la versione letteraria. In questo modo i bambini riflettono sulla variazione linguistica nelle diverse modalità comunicative e, a partire da ciò, individuano strumenti per una narrazione efficace, tanto all’orale che allo scritto. Seguono attività, ispirate all’approccio del process writing (White, Arndt 1991), per sviluppare le sotto-componenti del processo di scrittura, quali l’ideazione e l’organizzazione del testo, la redazione e la revisione. La relazione presenta un’analisi qualitativa e quantitativa delle produzioni scritte prima e dopo il percorso didattico in due classi sperimentali e due di controllo. I testi sono stati analizzati rispetto ad alcuni indici quali la lunghezza, chiarezza, completezza e organizzazione del testo, e la complessità linguistica (cfr. Housen et al. 2012). La presentazione dei risultati sarà accompagnata da alcune riflessioni circa le possibili implicazioni applicative.

Morphological complexity (MC) is a relatively new construct in second language acquisition (SLA). After critically discussing existing approaches to calculating MC in first- and second-language acquisition research, this article presents a new operationalization of the construct, the Morphological Complexity Index (MCI). The MCI is applied in two case studies based on argumentative written texts produced by native and non-native speakers of Italian and English. Study 1 shows that morphological complexity varies between native and non-native speakers of Italian, and that it is significantly lower in learners with lower proficiency levels. The MCI is strongly correlated to proficiency, measured with a C-test, and also shows significant correlations with other measures of linguistic complexity, such as lexical diversity and sentence length. Quite a different picture emerges from Study 2, on advanced English learners. Here, morphological complexity remains constant across natives and non-natives, and is not significantly correlated to other text complexity measures. These results point to the fact that morphological complexity in texts is a function of speakers’ proficiency and the specific language under investigation; for some linguistic systems with a relatively simple inflectional morphology, such as English, learners will soon reach a threshold level after which inflectional diversity remains constant.

Questo articolo dà conto dei risultati di un progetto di ricerca-azione in scuole primarie italiane. I principi centrali sono la valutazione della formazione, l’orientamento al processo della scrittura, l'apprendimento cooperativo e l’approccio inclusivo che non separa gli/le apprendenti in base alle loro capacità linguistiche o di scrittura. A questo studio hanno partecipato apprendenti di età compresa tra gli 8 e gli 11 anni, in sette classi sperimentali (N = 106) e in sette classi di controllo (N = 118). I loro testi sono stati esaminati sia olisticamente attraverso scale di efficacia comunicativa, sia mediante misurazioni analitiche. Il confronto tra alunni monolingui e multilingui, sia nelle classi sperimentali sia in quelle di controllo, mostra una serie di similarità in termini di competenza testuale e anche alcune differenze, in particolare per quanto riguarda gli aspetti più linguistici della scrittura, come la coesione verbale. Un risultato importante mostra che la partecipazione al programma ha avuto un impatto maggiore sulla qualità del testo degli/delle apprendenti rispetto alle loro condizioni iniziali di monolingui o multilingui. This article reports on the results of an action-research project in Italian primary schools. Its main principles are formative evaluation, a process orientation to writing, cooperative learning, and an inclusive approach that does not separate pupils according to their linguistic or writing skills. Pupils aged eight to eleven years old participated in the study in seven experimental (N = 106) and seven control classes (N = 118). Their texts were examined both holistically, through scales of communicative effectiveness, and by means of analytical measurements. The comparison of monolingual and multilingual pupils in both experimental and control classes shows a number of similarities in terms of textual competence, as well as a few differences, especially regarding the more linguistic aspects of writing, such as verb tense cohesion. A remarkable result is that students’ text quality seems to depend more on their participation to the program than on their monolingual or multilingual status. Este artículo informa los resultados de un proyecto de investigación-acción en escuelas primarias italianas. Sus principios más importantes son la evaluación formativa, una orientación al proceso de escritura, aprendizaje cooperativo y un enfoque inclusivo que no separa a los estudiantes según sus habilidades lingüísticas o de escritura. Los alumnos de entre ocho y once años participaron en el estudio en siete clases experimentales (N = 106) y siete clases control (N = 118). Sus textos se examinaron de manera holística por medio de escalas de efectividad comunicativa y mediciones analíticas. La comparación de alumnos monolingües y multilingües en las clases experimentales y de control muestra un número de similitudes en términos de competencia textual al igual que algunas diferencias, especialmente con respecto a los aspectos más lingüísticos de la escritura, como la cohesión del tiempo verbal. Un resultado notable muestra que participar en el programa tuvo un mayor impacto en la calidad del texto de los estudiantes que sus condiciones iniciales mono- o multilingüe.

This article is a conceptual and methodological exploration of a new construct, task interactional difficulty, and of a possible approach to assessing task demands in general. After arguing for the use of ‘task difficulty’ instead of ‘task complexity’, the notion of task interactional difficulty is analyzed, first by reviewing previous SLA research, then by elaborating an explicit theoretical definition. An operationalization is suggested in terms of three dimensions: number of turn exchanges, number of initiating moves, and visual access among participants. The first two parameters can be measured on native speakers’ task performance, while the third may be assessed with two categorical values. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, these measures are applied to a corpus of native speakers of Italian performing six different oral tasks, which are then ranked according to their interactional difficulty. Implications for SLA research and task-based language teaching and assessment are discussed, as well as possible ways of extending this procedure to other types of tasks and other facets of difficulty.

The article presents a typology of statements that can be made about discourse data. The classification is based on two parameters: level of generality and level of interpretation. Each of these is operationalized into three discrete levels, to yield a nine-cell table containing types of statements going from the presentation of a single case to the elaboration of complex general theories. The discussion is based on an extensive review of published research and on an empirical study on other-repetition in child second language discourse. The proposed classification aims at clarifying a number of questions and possible misunderstandings about issues of interpretation, generalization, and quantification. It is shown that in some cases apparently opposed approaches actually make the same type of statements, simply using different terms and methodologies, whereas in other cases, the dispute is not on different methodological options, but rather on different types of statements altogether. Researchers are invited to be more explicit as regards their position in order to promote interdisciplinary dialog and facilitate cross-method comparisons.

This article critically scrutinizes a number of issues involved in the definition and operationalization of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) constructs. It argues for maintaining clearer distinctions between CAF, on the one hand, and notions such as linguistic development and communicative adequacy, on the other. Adequacy, in particular, should be considered both as a separate performance dimension and as a way of interpreting CAF measures.

The article provides a methodological discussion on the definition of linguistic structures in interlanguage. Data come from an Eritrean learner observed during the first months of exposure to Italian as a second language. Previous re- search identified some developmental sequences for the acquisition of verb morphology, but it is not always clear how metalinguistic terms used in such sequences (e.g. 'present tense', 'past participle') should be interpreted. The article dis- cusses the issue in depth, by providing several explicit definitions for some of the structures involved in the sequence, no- tably present tense, person marking, past participle and present perfect. Results show that different definitions of the inter- language structures may lead to different acquisition orders. These findings suggest that the formulation of developmental sequences should be based on clear, explicit definitions both of the acquisition criteria and of the structures investigated.

This paper reports on a longitudinal ethnographic study of the language socialisation of a group of Moroccan adolescents who migrated to Italy in the late 1990s. The approach is based on the notion of language socialisation, which sees the process of acquiring a language as linked to that of becoming a member of a culture. The participants live in small towns in a semi-rural area in Northern Italy and were closely observed during their initial contact with Italian Ethnographic observations continued in the following years, and were conducted both in the homes and in school programmes. Five years later, in-depth interviews were carried out on a range of issues dealing with ethnolinguistic identity, and language knowledge and use in a variety of domains and intercultural relationships. Written materials were also collected on personal experiences and attitudes towards Italy and Morocco. These data, taken together, show how socialisation into the new culture is producing a very rapid shift in langua...

Although acquisition criteria are a fundamental issue for SLA research, they have not always been adequately defined or elaborated in the literature. This article critically scrutinizes one such criterion, the emergence criterion, proposing an explicit, operational definition. After discussing emergence as a theoretical construct, the article addresses several points involved in its operationalization. These points concern all stages of a research project, from data collection to data organization and analysis. A concrete example is provided, leading to the formulation of an emergence criterion for the acquisition of two grammatical structures of Italian as a second language. Issues of reliability and validity are also discussed, providing indications for future research.

Cet article porte sur un phenomene qui est a la fois linguistique et interactionnel : le role des autorepetitions dans la construction des tours de parole. L’etude porte sur l’italien d’une fillette marocaine de 5 ans, observee dans l’ecole maternelle du pays d’accueil ou elle est inscrite. Ses autorepetitions font d’abord l’objet d’une etude structurale portant sur leurs aspects lexicaux, syntaxiques, prosodiques et pragmatiques. Plusieurs explications susceptibles de rendre compte du phenomene sont ensuite explorees : elles auraient une fonction de reparation, de facilitation de la production ‘en ligne’ ou entreraient dans un processus de ‘construction verticale’. Leur role dans le contexte de l’interaction fait l’objet d’une attention particuliere et une analyse comparative demontre que les tours qui contiennent des autorepetitions apparaissent typiquement dans des situations interactionnelles ‘difficiles’, par exemple quand il s’agit d’attirer l’attention de l’interlocuteur ou de le distraire d’une activite dans laquelle il est engage.

Although a growing number of second language acquisition (SLA) studies take linguistic complexity as a dependent variable, the term is still poorly defined and often used with different meanings, thus posing serious problems for research synthesis and knowledge accumulation. This article proposes a simple, coherent view of the construct, which is defined in a purely structural way, i.e. the complexity directly arising from the number of linguistic elements and their interrelationships. Issues of cognitive cost (difficulty) or developmental dynamics (acquisition) are explicitly excluded from this theoretical definition and its operationalization. The article discusses how the complexity of an interlanguage system can be assessed based on the limited samples with which SLA researchers usually work. For the areas of morphology, syntax and the lexicon, some measures are proposed that are coherent with the purely structural view advocated, and issues related to their operationalization are critically scrutinized.

L’article présente une approche écologique de l’étude des classes de langue, ce qui suppose une prise en compte systématique des contextes socioculturels dans lesquels l’acquisition s’effectue. La première question examinée a trait au type de contexte d’apprentissage qu’est la classe. L’environnement que constitue la classe est comparé et contrasté avec d’autres contextes afin de parvenir à une définition qui unisse un point de vue étique et un point de vue émique. Une autre question porte sur la manière de distinguer différentes voies d’apprentissage d’une langue, et touche donc à la caractérisation de ce qui est propre à l’apprentissage en classe. Les distinctions acquisition/apprentissage et guidé/non-guidé sont soumises à discussion. La classe devrait aussi être considérée comme partie de contextes socioculturels plus larges, ce qui conduit à poser l’acquisition de la langue comme forme de socialisation et à montrer la complexité et les limites de la distinction traditionnelle langue étrangère/langue seconde. Enfin, on propose un bref examen des principales options offertes aux enseignants et aux chercheurs pour décrire les contextes de classe et les interactions qui y trouvent place. The article presents an ecological approach to the study of language classrooms, which entails systematic consideration of the socio-cultural context(s) in which language acquisition takes place. The first issue to be discussed is what type of learning context a classroom is. The classroom environment is compared and contrasted with other contexts in order to reach a definition which tries to encompass both an etic and an emic viewpoint. A further issue is how different ways of learning a language can be identified, which bears on the recognition of what is specific to classroom learning. More particularly, the acquisition/learning and guided/non guided distinctions are discussed. The classroom environment should also be seen as part of wider socio-cultural contexts, which raises the issues of language acquisition as a form of socialization and shows the complexity and the limits of the traditional foreign language/second language distinction. Finally, a brief review is provided of some of the main options available to teachers and researchers for describing classroom contexts and the interactions that take place in them.

Recent work in second language acquisition research has seen a renewed interest in 'external factors' affecting the acquisition process. However, few studies have adressed the question of how the interactional features of the social context in which naturalistic learning takes place, can influence second language development. The research presented in this paper is an attempt to fill this gap, in applying a 'language socialization' (Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986) perspective on non-instructed second language acquisition. The subject of the study is a Moroccan five-year- old girl, who was videotaped in an ethnographic study of her acquisition of Italian as a second language. This approach allowed to collect data both on the girl's linguistic development and on the socio-interactional environment in which it took place. It was thus possible to investigate the systematic relationships between interlanguage and its context of acquisition. This preliminary investigation focuses on three different language levels. The first is the lexicon: the very first words learned by the girl can be shown to have a particular relevance for the nursery school's communicative economy. The second area of investigation is morphology. Here, too, one can see how some of the first grammatical morphemes acquired, diminutives and superlatives, played a role in facilitating the learner's socialization. Finally, an examination of how syntactic structures were initially produced, shows that sentence construction was influenced by the interactional needs of the speaker in a particular communicative context. It is argued that all these aspects of second language acquisition can -at least partially - be explained by reference to the socio-cultural context of learning. Given the importance recently attributed to interaction as one of the most powerful determinants of naturalistic second language acquisition, it is suggested that the study of the sociolinguistic environment - or the 'ecology' of second language acquisition - is a profitable direction for future research.

L’articolo presenta i risultati di uno studio condotto sulle narrazioni scritte di bambini di due classi quinte della scuola primaria coinvolte nel progetto Osservare l’Interlingua. Lo scopo della ricerca era valutare gli effetti di una sperimentazione educativa incentrata su attività di osservazione delle proprietà linguistico-discorsive di testi orali e scritti (letterari e prodotti dagli alunni stessi) sulle scelte dei bambini in merito all’uso del discorso riportato. I risultati ottenuti, messi a confronto con quelli di due classi di controllo, mostrano che chi ha parteci­pato alla sperimentazione scrive narrazioni più vivaci, anche perché fa maggiore uso del discorso diretto. Lo studio dimostra quindi l’efficacia di percorsi di educazione linguistica che attribuiscono agli alunni un ruolo attivo, “da piccoli ricercatori”, coinvolgendoli in attività collaborative di osservazione e manipolazione di testi propri e altrui., Italiano a scuola, Vol 1 (2019)