My study aims to explore the role of correct pronunciation and intonation in teaching Italian as a foreign language and how technology can be used as a valid teaching tool for improving English native speakers' ability to master specific and fundamental phonemic and prosodic characteristics of the Italian language.
The findings of my research will allow the identification of effective approaches and activities to promote Italian pronunciation and intonation teaching to English native speakers in and out-of-class through the use specific didactic materials. Moreover, my research will support and enrich both the theory and the practice in the field of teaching and learning Italian as a foreign language.
As a result, the research questions of my study are: i) which are the core sounds of the Italian language that English native speakers must master in order to maintain intelligibility, ii) how can blended learning be used to elaborate a specific didactic path which can usefully help learners to improve their pronunciation and intonation skills, therefore their communicative competence.