Formation of Italian language speaking competence in students using a manual “L’italiano è facile”

Abstract

The article proves that foreign language competence in speaking is the most important component of the process of preparing students for intercultural communication and the development of speaking skills is extremely complex and requires the search for modern tools and teaching aids. The main difficulties influencing the formation of Italian language speaking competence in high school students have been identified. Among them: lack of motivation; psychological discomfort; vocabulary deficit; language barrier; fear of expressing one’s own opinion; excessive use of the native language in foreign language lessons. In order to overcome these difficulties, the manual «L’italiano è facile» have been developed, which includes exercises for the development of speaking skills in Italian language lessons in high school students. The manual combines exercises that develop students’ skills of both monologue and dialogic speech. The structure of the manual includes exercises in 6 thematic blocks, as well as lexical applications according to each of the topics: «Viaggio» (Travel), «Cucina» (Kitchen), «Stare bene fisicamente» (Feel healthy), «Shopping» (Shopping), «Educazione» (Education). The article presents a methodical experiment organized to test the effectiveness of the developed system of exercises for the formation of Italian language speaking competence in high school students in the manual «L’italiano è facile». The hypothesis of the experiment has been formulated, its stages have been described, the content and tasks of pre- and post-experimental sections have been analyzed. The results of experimental sections, which confirmed the overall effectiveness of the developed system of exercises, have been presented and interpreted. It is proved that the development of modern interesting teaching aids for learning Italian is a priority for the promotion of this foreign language in Ukraine.