Animated Cartoons in the Language Classroom: Attitudes and Perceptions of Italian L2 Students

摘要: Second Language Acquisition (SLA) researchers seem to agree that compared traditional textbook-bound second language (L2) instruction, the use of video for pedagogical purposes provides significant enhancements in terms context, discourse, paralinguistic features, cultural aspects and students’ motivation (Bahrani, 2014; Oddone, 2011; Pilz, 2008; Swaffar & Vlatten, 1997; Verspoor Hong, 2013). My study explores British preschool educational children’s animated cartoon series Peppa Pig (Davies, 2004) its Italian-dubbed version as a resource creating constructive multimodal environment enhance listening comprehension skills, vocabulary grammar acquisition, motivate college SLA students Italian. Informed by Sociocultural (Vygotsky,1978) Multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996), theoretical frameworks, research questions guiding this mixed methods were: a) How do undergraduate Italian perceive effectiveness incorporating (dubbed) cartoons their L2 courses? b) view various strategies (e.g. captions, multiple viewings class discussions) supports scaffold extend skills expand vocabulary? c) To what extent proficiency (novice intermediate) impact perception videos’ usefulness means advance Italian? Both quantitative (a survey) qualitative data (student written reflections interviews), acquired throughout 16-week semester, were analyzed. The shows both groups perceived watching be enjoyable viewed an authentic tool developing skills. Students especially appreciated same-language conveyed discussions provided reinforcement they had learned class. While results less favorable when it came development production, participants expressed introduced them new idioms.