La competenza prosodica nella classe di lingue. L’italiano in contesto L2, LS ed e-learning

Full proficiency in a second language is attained when learners develop rhythmic-prosodic
competence equivalent to that of the native speakers. Since prosodic competence is the result
of a complex set of variables, this study aims to investigate the role of the learning context
in the acquisition of the suprasegmental features of Italian. Three different groups of Polish
learners are involved in the study: four students of Italian as a second language, four learners
of Italian as a foreign language, and four e-learners. The results of spectro-acoustic analysis
conducted on the speech corpus show that exposure to the L2 in native contexts facilitates
the awareness that communicative effectiveness largely depends on the tonal variations of
the utterance. Furthermore, the e-learners’ ability to perform intonation patterns similarly to native speakers suggests that the strategies adopted in distance education to teach oral productive skills are useful for the development of prosodic competence in L2.