LE CHAT LINES COME SUPPORTO GLOTTODIDATTICO.

Starting with Porcelli's studies and the ones which followed his, this paper deals with the potentialities that chat lines offer as for the learning of foreign languages, taking their increasing usage into account. To those who already possess a basic knowledge of a foreign language chat lines give the chance of reinforcing their passive knowledge and of enlarging their vocabulary, mainly in the domain of informal register, which often borders on jargon. The usage of writing allows them to improve their knowledge of spelling (above all with languages which present a gap between written and oral forms) and their skill at recognizing foreign words. One of the advantages of chat lines is their low cost; another is the fact that attention is continually stimulated and that users are led to participate actively, as the telematic means is involving and handy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]