Learning Italian as an L2: the case of Arabic mother tongue learners

Abstract

This paper aims to report the investigations and outcome of a study conducted in the context of learning a foreign language, aimed at discovering whether a relationship exists between the difficulty in learning structures that are typical of the L2 (Italian) but which are not present in the source language (Arabic).To do this, questionnaires were given to a group of Arabic-speaking students at the Università for Foreigners of Perugia, with questions concerning various verbal and phonological aspects of the Italian language. The questionnaires assessed the competence in Italian of the Arab students, aiding the understanding of the real degree of linguistic competence of the sample examined. From this, it was also possible to gain an understanding of whether there is a relationship between the skills of the students and the time spent in Italy.