Effectiveness of picture books for Italian instruction at Japanese universities

Abstract

Recently, the use of children's picture books to teach English has been increasing in Japan. An advantage of these books is the high proportion of basic vocabulary they include. Can picture books also be useful for teaching Japanese students Italian and increasing their motivation? The present study analyses the effectiveness of employing a picture book for Italian instruction using a questionnaire survey administered to 39 Japanese learners of Italian at three Japanese universities. L'Acca in fuga by Gianni Rodari and Nicola Buiat was enjoyed by more than 92% of the participants. A total of 92.3% admitted that their degree of interest in the content was linked with their motivation to read children's literature in Italian. In addition, 58.9% admitted to experiencing a sense of fulfilment after reading the book, thus increasing their motivation to learn the language. As for grammatical aspects, 74.3% agreed that the book was useful for learning several types of past tense. Moreover, 69.2% and 79.5% agreed that the picture book effectively helped them understand the conditional and subjunctive moods. Based on these results, we conclude that picture books can facilitate significant adult learning. Japanese adult learners described enjoying the experience of reading Italian picture books at university, and found them to be useful for learning grammar, developing vocabulary and enhancing their intercultural understanding.