Native Italians' comprehension of press information in Spanish: a phraseodidactic approximation from a cognitive linguistics approach

Abstract

This thesis analyses the interlanguage effect in the learning process of Spanish phraseology by native Italians. It is intended to investigate the interactions between native languages and the learning process of a foreign language in the light of previous investigation on the area of phraseology and its didactics.

Phraseology plays a vital role in the acquisition of a foreign language, accomplishing the goal set in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which depicts what knowledge and skills are to be developed in language acquisition, taking into account the cultural context in which this process is set. Phraseology is a challenging aspect of language learning, precisely because it brings along multiple cultural aspects that are rarely translated literally and that usually do not follow static grammar rules.

Phraseology, therefore, is presented as a basic feature of communication to be integrated in foreign language teaching by means of phraseodidactics. This PhD research is intended to confront the students with functional aspects of the language by means of real material.