Course Topics
- The basic principles, tools and methods of the scientific analysis of verbal language and language acquisition processes; - the structures of verbal language (phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon) with particular attention to the Italian language; - the process of acquiring Italian, also taking into account the different language learning contexts and the relevance of this in language education in pre-school and primary school; - the national and provincial regulatory framework on language education in primary and pre-primary schools; - examples of didactic proposals in the field of L1, with particular attention to the development of oral skills.

Teaching format
Frontal lesson Laboratory activities

Educational objectives
Disciplinary skills Knowledge and understanding At the end of the module, students have a good knowledge of the principles, methods and content of linguistics (with reference to the Italian language and its varieties), acquisitional linguistics and first language didactics, within a broader pro-spective of language education. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding The subjects included in the module enable students to recognise morphological, syntactic and textual structures of Italian and to carry out simple analyses of real and contextualised language fragments. Furthermore, at the end of the course the students are able to reflect on the linguistic development of pupils in pre-school and first cycle education, to critically evaluate and select the resources available for language education and to produce their own. Transversal skills Autonomy of judgement By the end of the course, students have attained disciplinary, critical and interpretative skills that enable them to make observations and formulate autonomous judgements on language use, language learning on the part of the child, and language teaching in pre-school and primary school. Communicative skills At the end of the module, the students have acquired specific communicative skills, in particular formal accuracy of exposition and word selection, argumentative skills and the ability to summarise in Italian. The insistence on linguistic topics naturally stimulates greater awareness, and thus control, of the linguistic resources available. The workshop activities, in plenum and in small groups, contribute to developing specific communicative skills such as argumentative ability, formal accuracy and the ability to synthesise. Learning skills The module provides the principles, methodologies and basics for any other language teaching, including second and foreign language learning. The knowledge and reflective skills acquired enable the future teacher to independently update and deepen his or her study of the processes of acquisition and development of first languages, as well as to critically update himself or herself on the language education proposals he or she will encounter in the course of his or her professional life.

Assessment
written test with open questions and exercises; development of teaching activities.

Evaluation criteria
The examination provides for a single final mark consisting of 50% of the assessment of the Italian Linguistics module, 30% of the assessment of the L1 Acquisition module and 20% of the assessment of the L1 Didactics paper. The following are considered and assessed: relevance, completeness, capacity for critical analysis and independent revision, clarity of argument, lexical and grammatical appropriateness of answers and papers. The active participation shown by students in the workshops is also taken into account. In the event of a failing grade for the entire module, any successfully passed partial examinations will be considered as already passed at the next attempt to take the entire module examination. It should be borne in mind that, even in this case, a negative mark for the entire module will be counted towards the number of attempts available to take an examination. According to the Examinations Regulations, if a student fails an examination in three consecutive attempts, he/she may not register for the same examination in the three sessions following the last attempt (Art. 6, para. 4 of the current Regulations for Proficiency Examinations).

Required readings

•  Course materials.
• Berruto G. / Cerruti M. (2017). Linguistics. An introductory course. UTET: Torino (selection of chapters to be announced at the beginning of the lessons).
• Masini F. / Grandi N. (2017). Everything you always wanted to know about language and languages. Cesena, Caissa (one chapter of your choice).
• Cignetti L./Demartini S./Fornara S./Viale M. (2022). Didactics of Italian as a first language. Il Mulino. N.B.: only chapters I, III, IV, V, VII, VIII, IX.

.

Supplementary readings

If necessary, they will be provided in the course of the lessons.