The Effect of Two Teaching Approaches on the Italian as a Foreign Language Learners’ Written Production

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the written production of two groups of Italian as a foreign language (ItFL) learners in order to relate their performance to the teaching approach they were exposed to. The first group received explicit instruction on two structures: presente dell’indicativo and passato prossimo, while the second group received implicit instruction with a set of communicative activities containing input flood combined with enhancement of the target structures. Teaching units were designed to meet each approach. The data were collected through pre- and post-tests, and the writing activities from the teaching units. The results showed distinct advantages for each group.