L’uso didattico di spot pubblicitari perl'apprendimento dell'italiano LS

Abstract

language students. Apart from the fact that they are not simply convincing but, above all, entertaining, commercials can also induce one to reflect profoundly on various cultural and linguistic aspects. As Pavan (2013, 117) affirms, “L’uso della pubblicità nell’insegnamento di una lingua straniera ha un indiscutibile effetto motivante e mettelostudente in contatto con la lingua e la cultura quotidiane”. Moreover, Peters (2019) argues how the studies of Peters & Webb (2018) and Rogers &Webb (2019) “[...] have shown that learners can pick up new words incidentally when watching TV”. Therefore, given that television commercials are composed of audio, imagery and also on-screen text, they aid foreign language students in gaining more vocabulary. This research study aims to find out whether and how teachers of Italian as a foreign language in secondary schools in Malta integrate commercials in their lessons and what is their perspective on this particular audiovisual methodology of teaching. This will be determined through 6 semi-structured online interviews with teachers of Italian of year 10coming from the three different sectors, namely State, Church and Independent schools. In addition, this research will also analyse the practicality of the use of commercials in class by determining the difficulties encountered by teachers, the perceived advantages and disadvantages, the attitudes and reactions of the students in class when including commercials in lessons. It will also explore the linguistic and cultural aspects that can be taught through the use of commercials. This will be done by preparing a set of 4 lesson plans based on the use of commercials together with all relevant teaching resources.