Vocabulary Instruction in Textbooks of Italian as a Foreign Language: A Descriptive Analysis

Abstract

Research in second language acquisition has shown that vocabulary growth is beneficial for reading (Qian 1999, 2000), listening comprehension (Staehr 2009), and has a positive influence on writing and speaking performances (Johnson et al. 2016; Levelt 1995). Vocabulary learning is hence a central pillar in the second language classroom. The activities used to enable the acquisition of new vocabulary play a crucial role in the learners’ path to proficiency. In this regard, the textbooks used are important since they can largely influence what types of vocabulary activities are used by the teachers in the classroom (Allen 2008; Tavakoli and Wright 2020; Woodward 1989). Nation (2013) provides a useful framework to analyze such activities. He identifies four strands that should be used in a balanced way to provide students with a comprehensive variety of tools to learn and apply new vocabulary. This study explores to what extent the four strands of activities are present in mainstream textbooks of Italian as a Foreign Language. This study also bridges a gap in the literature, since little research on vocabulary instruction has been done on the textbooks used for languages other than English. The result of our analysis shows that the Italian textbooks mostly focus on vocabulary aspects such as form-meaning mapping and grammar, leaving less room for meaning focused input and output. Furthermore, no activities that aimed at fluency development were found.