Esprimere gusti e preferenze in L2. Analisi di produzioni scritte di apprendenti vulnerabili

The communicative functions related to the expression of personal tastes and preferences are attested very early in the process of L2 learning. Moreover, the importance to focus on these functions in L2 (Italian) classes, even in literacy courses and especially with adult refugees and asylum seekers, has been extensively demonstrated. The present study has a twofold objective. Firstly, it aims at identifying forms of expression of personal tastes and preferences in written production of L2 Italian vulnerable low-literate learners. Secondly, it intends to investigate L2 Italian teaching experiences related to the two above mentioned functions, with a review of teaching materials. To reach the first goal, the ScrItAV corpus was consulted and 107 short texts, produced by refugees and asylum seekers in L2 Italian literacy classes at the University L’Orientale of Naples were selected. An error analysis was carried out on the micro-corpus by means of the UAM Corpus Tool software. For the second research objective, 10 L2 Italian literacy teachers were administered an online questionnaire about methods and materials used in teaching how to express tastes and preferences in the second language; 12 textbooks of Italian as L2 for literacy levels were also examined. The corpus analysis allowed to recognize the forms in which the two functions are realized in written productions of low-literate learners of Italian as L2 and to describe the path from the Pre Alpha A1 to A1 level. If learners succeeded in expressing their tastes especially about food, colours and aspects of the city of Naples, what seems to be less developed and trained, but also more crucial, is the expression of what is disliked. To such vulnerable learners, often experiencing a traumatic past and a difficult present in reception camps, the ability to verbalize what is not going well, what is perceived as unacceptable, what is not preferred can be very urgent. This communicative need does not seem to be satisfied in literacy classes and by textbooks of Italian as L2, in which the positive forms are more numerous and more frequent than the negative ones.