A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Learning aspect in Italian as additional language. The role of second languages

  2021. Francesco Vallerossa (et al.). International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

  Article

  The study examines the role played by English and Romance languages (L2s) when learning grammatical aspect in Italian as additional language (Ln). Swedish university students of Italian (n = 34), divided according to knowledge of a Romance L2 and English aspectual knowledge, completed an interpretation task of aspectual contrast in Italian. Eight native speakers served as a control group. The findings showed that knowledge of a Romance language as L2 and high English aspectual knowledge exerted a differential influence on learning aspect in Italian. This outcome is discussed in the light of a consistent form-meaning relationship between the L2s and Italian. Yet, with a mismatch between grammatical and lexical aspect, the learners' judgments differed from the native speakers' judgments. Thus, our findings also support the idea of the existence of differential learning paths sustained by the L2s when learning complex aspectual configurations.

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• The Role of Linguistic Typology, Target Language Proficiency and Prototypes in Learning Aspectual Contrasts in Italian as Additional Language

  2021. Francesco Vallerossa. Languages 6 (4)

  Article

  The study examines how prototypes and typological relationships between the L1, the L2 and the target language (TL) interact with TL proficiency in learning Italian as additional language. Low-proficiency and high-proficiency undergraduate learners of Italian (N = 25) with Swedish as L1 performed an oral retelling story test, aiming to elicit the Italian aspectual contrast perfective-imperfective. Their tense selection was analyzed considering the predicates' lexical aspect and the learners' knowledge of a Romance L2, or lack thereof. The findings show that the typological proximity between the L2 and the TL exerts a differential role depending on TL proficiency. Initially, it is beneficial for accelerating the overall emergence of the imperfetto as an aspectual marker. However, the prototype factor and, more specifically, the predicates' dynamicity influences the selection of past inflectional morphology. At more advanced stages, knowledge of a Romance language helps learners move beyond prototypical associations with the passato prossimo, but it does not seem to influence the use of the imperfetto among high-proficiency learners. These results are discussed in the light of research on the second and additional language learning of aspectual contrasts in Romance languages. 

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• ”He was finishing his homework or il finissait ses devoirs”

  2021. Francesco Vallerossa.

  Conference

  I studien undersöks hur tre universitetsstudenter på nybörjarnivå, alla med olika språkbakgrund, förstår italiensk dåtidsmorfologi mot bakgrund av sina tidigare språkkunskaper. En student har svenska som modersmål och franska som andraspråk, en annan har franska som modersmål och svenska som andraspråk och den tredje studenten har både franska och svenska som modersmål. Studenterna fick göra en grammatisk bedömningsuppgift rörande olika tempusformer på italienska. Dessutom fick de lämna skriftliga kommentarer om hur de resonerade kring sina tempusval. De introspektiva kommentarerna analyserades med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys.

  Ur analysen framträdde fyra teman: intuitioner, tidigare inlärda språk, explicita regler och osäkerhet. Medan studenten som hade franska som modersmål baserade sina tempusval nästan enbart på intuitioner om språk, föll studenten som hade svenska som modersmål tillbaka på explicita klassrumsregler. Dessutom gjorde denna student direkta jämförelser mellan verbformer på olika språk, till exempel mellan perifrastiska konstruktioner i svenska, engelska (was going) och italienska (stava andando). Trots att sådana resonemang i princip var korrekta bedömde denna student verbformerna felaktigt eftersom hon endast baserade sina bedömningar på det som hade lärts ut explicit. Slutligen fick studenten med två modersmål hjälp av romanska språk och engelska vilka användes strategiskt för att utföra korrekta bedömningar. 

  Studien bidrar till både flerspråkighetsforskning och språkdidaktik. Vad gäller flerspråkighetsforskningen besitter studenterna en avancerad metaspråklig medvetenhet. En sådan sofistikerad medvetenhet främjar studenternas hypotestestande kring hur mappningen av former och betydelser ser ut mellan olika språk. Detta verkar i sin tur både påskynda och underlätta tillägnandet av italienska verbformer. Vad gäller det språkdidaktiska forskningsfältet pekar resultaten mot en explicit undervisning där studenterna aktivt uppmuntras göra sådana tvärspråkliga jämförelser. Ur en strukturell synvinkel ligger italienska närmare andra romanska språk och engelska än svenska när det kommer till verbmorfologi. Dessutom har italienskstuderande ofta kunskaper i dessa språk sedan skolgången och de är väl medvetna om sådana tvärspråkliga likheter. 

  Högskoleundervisningen är dock fortfarande präglad av väletablerade kontrastiva metoder där det italienska grammatiksystemet endast ställs emot det svenska systemet. Istället föreslås här en systematisk och genomtänkt inkludering av tidigare inlärda språk som ett verktyg för att förmedla grammatiska strukturer som är lika mellan tidigare inlärda språk och målspråket. 

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• Tense-aspect development among Swedish learners of Italian L3

  2019. Francesco Vallerossa. EuroSLA 29 - The 29th Conference of the European Second Language Association, 31-31

  Conference

  The acquisition of the aspectual contrast perfective/imperfective in Italian as a second language has been investigated considering both the inherent semantics of verb predicates, i.e. telic and atelic, and the discursive functions conveyed by tenses, i.e. foreground and background contexts (Giacalone Ramat 1990; Rosi 2008). These studies indicate a first acquisition of perfective morphology associated to telic predicates in foreground contexts whereas a subsequent emergence of imperfective morphology appears with atelic predicates in background contexts. The frameworks connected to this developmental pattern are generally referred to as Lexical Aspect Hypothesis (LAH) and Discourse Hypothesis (DH) respectively, the former solely considering the semantics of verb predicates and the latter also integrating the discursive functions in the acquisition of tense-aspect (TA) categories (Andersen 1993; Bardovi-Harlig 2000). 

  Although the influence of other factors, such as input-frequency and the role of the first language, has been investigated in Romance languages, a comprehensive analysis of the acquisition of TA morphology in Italian in lacking.

  The present complitation thesis aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon in Italian by examining it from different angles, drawing on LAH and DH, and integrating them with frequency-based grammar (Ellis 2013). The common thread in the three papers included in the project is the study of Italian as a third language (L3) in Swedish formal contexts of instruction - both upper secondary school and university. In addition, both the perspective of the learner and that of the input provided by the instructor are regarded as equally indispensable for capturing the complex dynamics of the development of this additional language.

  In the first study, an analysis based on LAH and DH is conducted on InterIta, a corpus of 71 transcribed interviews from 25 Swedish university learners of Italian at different proficiency levels. The aim is to investigate whether and how the theories can be used as explanation models for the development of TA morphology.

  The second study examines the type of linguistic input conveyed by teachers from upper secondary school and university. Drawing on frequency-based grammar, the study shifts the attention from the output produced by the learners to the linguistic input presented to them, emphasizing its relevance in a formal environment. Recordings of instructors' talk during classes are thus analyzed in terms of frequency, i.e. how often TA morphology occurs, and distribution, i.e. what predicates are associated to TA morphology and in what discursive function.

  Finally, the third study aims to analyze the use of TA morpholgoy among advanced learners. Although research on the ultimate attainment in the aspectual domain has been conducted in other Romance languages, the counterpart in Italian remains under researched, especially considering the influence of previous languages.

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