L’atteggiamento degli studenti verso la grammatica e le loro effettive competenze grammaticali

The paper investigates the correlation between attitude towards grammar students self-declare and grammatical competences they demonstrate in two exercises requiring to identify the element which has the function of subject of the sentence. The exercises require students to analyze also sentences which are typical of oral communication with non-prototypical subjects, in order to test grammatical competences in linguistic contexts not usually proposed in grammar exercitation. Three groups of students, which are exposed to grammar teaching at school for a different number of years (i.e. 3, 5, 10), are compared. Findings point out that the investigated correlation between attitude and competence occurs in data and rises over time. Students with positive attitude towards grammar show higher competences than peers with negative attitude: the difference is slight in younger pupils, but becomes remarkable in students who concluded their school education. Furthermore, attitude towards grammar and its reasons vary among the three groups as well. Teaching turns out to have a role in the change of students’ attitude towards grammar over time. Collected students’ reflections show that a problematic feature of grammar teaching at school concerns the still large use of normative and deductive approach, also due to lack of specific preparation on linguistics and on language teaching in Italian teacher education curricula.