"The capacity of contrastive analysis to successfully predict the errors of second language learners - a case study"

The aim of this dissertation is to show the power of contrastive analysis in successfully predicting the errors a language learner will make by means of a concrete case study. First, there is a description of what language transfer is and why it is important in the matter of second language acquisition. Second, a brief explanation of the history and development of contrastive analysis will be offered. Third, the focus of the thesis will move to an analysis of errors usually made by language learners. To conclude, the dissertation will focus on the concrete case study of a Russian learner of English: after an analysis of the errors the student is likely to make, a recorded conversation will be examined.

Audiovisual materials and second-language acquisition: a comparison between native language subtitles and target language captions.

Over the last few years, the massive popularity of video streaming platforms has managed to impact our daily habits by making the watching of movies and TV shows one of the main activities of our free time. By providing a wide range of foreign language audiovisual content, these entertainment services may represent a powerful resource for language learners, as they provide them with the possibility to be exposed to authentic input. Moreover, research has shown the beneficial role of audiovisual textual aids such as native language subtitles and target language captions in enhancing language skills such as vocabulary and listening comprehension. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the existing literature on the subject of subtitled and captioned audiovisual materials used as a pedagogical tool for informal language learning.

School Language Brokering: il contributo dei giovani mediatori all’integrazione dei loro compagni

I bambini e adolescenti figli di immigrati ricoprono spesso il ruolo di mediatori linguistici e culturali per le loro famiglie o per altri membri della propria comunità etnico-linguistica. Questo fenomeno prende il nome di Child Language Brokering e si verifica in una grande varietà di contesti, tra i quali la scuola. A causa della scarsa disponibilità di servizi linguistici professionali a disposizione degli istituti scolastici, i bambini si ritrovano molto spesso a mediare a favore dei propri genitori, insegnanti e coetanei. La presente tesi si occuperà di fornire un inquadramento teorico del fenomeno, focalizzandosi in seguito sul CLB in ambito scolastico (anche detto School Language Brokering), per poi analizzare le linee guida che sono state elaborate nel Regno Unito per gestire al meglio le pratiche di mediazione a opera di minori nelle scuole. Infine, si metterà in risalto il prezioso contributo dei broker all’integrazione dei loro coetanei stranieri, sottolineando gli aspetti positivi e negativi che scaturiscono dalle pratiche di brokering.