L’input esplicito nella classe di Italiano L2 e la formazione di competenze linguistiche

A challenging issue in the acquisition of L2 Italian is the system of past verb forms because of the obligatory aspect selection between perfective tense and imperfective tense (Giacalone Ramat, 2002; Banfi & Bernini, 2003; Rosi, 2009). The study reports a preliminary investigation about the role for explicit instruction about aspectual functions in the acquisition of such a complex issue. The sample is composed by ten instructed Chinese-speaking learners at three linguistic levels. Data were collected in a pretest and posttest session by means of a fill-in-the-blank task. The findings show different effects for the three groups, since the explicit input turns out to be more beneficial for intermediate and low-intermediate learners (A2 and B1 levels) who, at the moment of the treatment, were actually processing the focused structures. These data provide further evidence for the relevance of the comprehension of acquisitional development in L2 teaching programme.