Cecilia Varcasia

This paper aims to present some of the results from a project conducted in primary schools within a bilingual area in northern Italy, focusing on enhancing language skills and metalinguistic awareness. The project is inspired by the “Éveil aux langues” approach as represented in the FREPA/CARAP project (Candelier et al., 2012) and the studies conducted by Andorno and Sordella (Andorno & Sordella 2017, 2018). It took place during the 2021-22 school year in three classes at a primary school in the province of Bolzano, Italy. In this multilingual region there are at least two languages of instruction (German L1/L2 and Italian L1/L2 respectively). Children from international/migrant backgrounds are learning these languages as their L2/L3/LX, presenting a challenge for teachers who need to adapt their classroom practices for newly arrived pupils.

This paper addresses the issue of multilingual classrooms in a context such as South Tyrol (Italy), characterized by both endogenous and exogenous multilingualism, the latter stemming from pupils with international backgrounds. The paper discusses the results of a research study conducted in highly multilingual primary school classrooms, inspired by the concept of ‘Éveil aux langues’, with the goal of fostering metalinguistic awareness.

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a widespread zoonosis and a significant economic concern and cause of morbidity in humans. A scarcity of education on the sources of CE infection and containment measures is considered to be a key factor responsible for persistent transmission within communities. Recently, edutainment approaches have captured the attention of health education (HE) professionals due to the benefits of integrating cognitive and emotional learning processes. A study was carried out in Sardinia, Italy, between 2020 and 2022, amid the SARS-Covid-19 pandemic. The project, designed to involve primary school children (via remote or face-to-face learning depending on the evolving Covid-19 containment measures) consisted of four distinct phases: (i) creation of material for school children and teachers focused on cystic echinococcosis; (ii) pre-intervention evaluation of CE knowledge (i.e. True False Don’t Know [TFD] pre-intervention questionnaire based on CE-related knowledge and practices); (iii) edutainment activity (e.g. interactive lessons enhanced by the comic booklet and the “Fight the parasite” cartoon video, hands-on educational activities and drawing activities on CE); and (iv) post-intervention evaluation of CE knowledge (via TFD post-intervention questionnaire [same questionnaire as used for the pre-intervention assessment] on CE-related knowledge and practices) and on-site edutainment tour in primary schools taking part to the project. The percentage of correct answers increased from 65% for the questionnaire administered pre-intervention to 87.9% for the same questionnaire administered post-intervention (χ2 = 648.12, df = 1, P < 0.0001), while the percentage of uncertain answers (i.e. ‘I don’t know’) decreased from 23% pre-intervention to 5% post-intervention (χ2 = 603.44, df = 1, P < 0.0001). These differences indicate a significantly enhanced understanding of CE among participating school children after the intervention. The results of the present survey indicate that the use of digital educational tools, the use of video animations as a model for science communication, as well as other participatory teaching methods, enabled children to retain key knowledge of the routes of CE transmission and ways to prevent it.

This paper explores, through the use of the observation checklist and Conversation Analysis (CA), the discourse functions elicited by the dialogic task of the Free University of Bolzano (IT) speaking test. It aims to contribute to content validation, which has been claimed to be especially relevant in paired speaking tests, where interaction is co-constructed by participants. Lazaraton has argued that the investigation of the process of the assessment of speaking competences represents, for todays’ research, a question of almost the same importance as outcome scores. The paper investigates the predictions of the construct through the actual elicitation of functions in the task performance of the test. Results are analysed qualitatively with respect to informational, interactional, and management-of-interaction functions. Some quantitative analysis was also conducted to determine the relative frequency of each function. Outcomes were found to be in line with previous research in the proportion of use of the three different types of functions, informational, interactional and management of interaction. The paper finally discusses the advantages and disadvantages of exploring test content through the lenses of observation checklists and CA, the first providing a general framework in which discourse functions can be outlined, and the second providing a more fine-tuned view of the data and of the complexity of exploitation of each function.