Research has clearly demonstrated the importance of providing comprehensible input in the development of learners' development of their underlying mental representation of a language. Storytelling has long been shown to be an effective way for children to expand their knowledge of their first language. For many of the same reasons, storytelling is also beneficial for the acquisition of an additional language. It provides access to copious amounts of linguistic data that can be used by the learners' brains to further their understanding of how the language works (i.e., grammar) as well as what words mean and how they can be put together in the new language (i.e., vocabulary knowledge and discourse structure). The storytelling approach, often referred to as TPRS (teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling) has been used in world language classrooms for many years. In recent years, however, thanks in large part to the popularity and work of prominent figures in second language acquisition (SLA) research, namely Stephen Krashen and Bill VanPatten, we have seen an increase in interest both in the use of storytelling and also in examining its efficacy in comparison to other approaches and its effectiveness in and of itself. To date, however, little has been done in Italian, either in material development or in looking at storytelling's place in the Italian language classroom. This paper presents one small-scale descriptive study of how storytelling was integrated into a first-year college-level beginning Italian course, focusing on student responsiveness and teacher satisfaction.
Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 1 Workbook (Simplified And Traditional Character, 3rd Edition) (Ch
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