Convinzioni e atteggiamenti verso l’apprendimento delle lingue: insegnanti e studenti a confronto

Abstract

Research has consistently proved that teachers’ and learners’ beliefs and attitudes towards languages and cultures, language learning and teaching, and themselves as learners and teachers affect both parties’ intentions, decisions and behaviour in the classroom. Such perceptions are rarely verbalised and socialised, with important consequences both for the processes and for the products of language curricula. This paper reports on some results of a survey carried out in upper secondary schools in Northern Italy on a few vital issues in language learning, including aptitude, the roles of teachers and learners, the impact of plurilingualism and the process of self-assessment. The survey used a multiple-choice questionnaire, which both teachers and their students answered in the same format. The data was used, in the first place, by teachers with their students, as a starting point to reflect on the points of convergence and divergence of their relative beliefs and attitudes, but also provided statistical results of the opinions of a sample of teachers and learners, with important implications for methodologies and teaching practices in the classroom.