Model uczenia języków obcych w szkole wyższej na przykładzie języka włoskiego. Założenia teoretyczne, metodologia nauczania i zintegrowany rozwój kompetencji

The monograph constitutes the first accurate and detailed publication in Polish concerning Italian language teaching in view of the broadly understood foreign language teaching related to the Polish reality with a particular focus on the higher education area. There have been also presented both theoretical assumptions accompanied by studies of the most important Italian linguists and educationalists and the issues linked to Italian teaching as a second or foreign language. Furthermore, the history of the Polish and Italian relations has been described, as regards the most important periods and their impact on the current popularity of Italian language and culture in Poland. Considering the fact, that in the Polish publishing market there are not enough books on Italian teaching matters, the monograph also concentrates on Italian language standard, its dialectal diversification, language policy of the Italian administration, Language and Italian Culture Institutes’ activities as well as on the certification system attesting language proficiency. Undoubtedly, it is the first such a comprehensive compendium on the role of Italian language in Europe and in Poland, which explains its considerable size. The monograph has four main goals: firstly, to investigate foreign/second language teaching methodology from the diachronic perspective taking account of the Italian subject literature, not leaving aside certain theories of the learning process and individual learner differences, as well as to examine given communicative/intercultural competence definitions; secondly, to understand the key notions of the European language policy especially within higher education and teaching curricula/syllabi; thirdly, to illustrate the specific character of Italian language, its possible teaching contexts, and to summarize the knowledge of Italian teaching; fourthly, most importantly, to develop a model of foreign language teaching in higher education which should serve to constitute a benchmark for the further research. Such a model proposed in the title of the monograph is based on: (1) course organization forms that directly affect the teaching methodology; (2) integrated communicative language competences development, and (3) pedagogical solutions applied to the teaching process. The integrated competences development is understood as a primary goal of the teaching process which involves appropriately balanced emphasis put on all the learners’ language communicative competences by using properly selected pedagogical means. The Polish notion of “uczenie” refers to both teaching and learning issues, in our opinion, these two terms interact with each other: in the formal educational context learning is usually stimulated by teaching, and teaching has to be adapted to learners’ abilities and needs.