Descrizione dei dati linguistici e prassi didattica: riflessioni e proposte

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the advantages language teaching can find in a more refined and theoretically-informed description of linguistic data. Italian school grammar handbooks are traditionally based on rough dichotomies, i.e. linguistic items are categorised according to the presence or absence of specific properties (e.g. the opposition between transitive and intransitive verbs is based on the presence vs. absence of a direct object). We will claim that a more detailed categorisation of grammatical items, which takes into consideration the most robust results of theoretical research, is only apparently more difficult and complex. Indeed, some frequent problems of language teaching (i.e. handling with exceptions, the students’ need for regularity, etc.) can greatly benefit from an accurate presentation of data, as we will show discussing some experiments we carried out at school.

DOI: 10.4424/lam12012-6