English Language Teaching Methods Informed by Learning Experiences in an Italian Vocational High School

Abstract

The acquisition of a new language is at the heart of the methods developed in English language teaching. Specifically, teaching the English language to adolescents mirrors the approaches used to teach the English language to adults. From the direct method to teachers as mediators of the foreign language, new developments have contributed to many methods and strategies for language teaching. Within these teaching methods, technology such as softwares and websites have been useful but there are still areas where technology can never replace a teacher or the structure and methods necessary to foreign language teaching. Text book usage in language teaching is useful principally for the order and structure offered by a curriculum. The research conducted in this paper dovetails on research of best practices in language teaching as well as technology use in the classroom and the benefits of a blended approach. Chapter one explores the existing methods and strategies used in the history of foreign language teaching and includes innovative techniques and practices. Chapter two goes into more detail of technology as well as text book use in the foreign language classroom and concludes with a description of English teaching in the Italian high school setting historically. Chapter three presents the results of research conducted at Cometa High School in Lake Como Italy. The blended learning approach has shown to be the most effective in increasing students’ test scores and improving their English language level. Through the results of standardized regional tests as well as teacher created benchmarks based on the European levels of language, looking at trends in scores moving towards a technology-based curriculum, as well as qualitative research results, data was compiled to offer a proposal for a blended learning approach as the most appropriate for the learning of the English language at a secondary school level, including adequate speaking practice, assessments and a curriculum appropriate for a vocational high school.