Relatore Chiar mo Prof. Graziano Serragiotto Correlatore

5. 
Teaching English Pronunciation in Primary Schools in 
Italy 
The first part of this chapter (section 5.1) introduces the situation of English language teaching 
in primary schools in Italy. The second part (section 5.2) focuses on the English Language Teacher 
Training Programme that involves generalist teachers who have to undertake adequate training in 
order to become qualified to teach also the English language to their class. 
5.1. English Language Teaching in Primary Schools 
During the years following the primary school reform (1985), the Italian government, tried to 
introduce foreign languages as a subject into the greatest number of classes possible at primary school 
level. In 2004 the Italian government passed a decree introducing the English language as a 
compulsory subject from the first year of primary school (i.e., from 6 years of age).
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Unlike most of 
the other subjects taught in primary school, English has a specific timetable: one hour per week in the 
first year, two hours per week in the second year, and three hours per week in the third, in the fourth 
and in the fifth year, amounting to a minimum compulsory total of 396 hours throughout primary 
education.
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The curriculum is defined through the National Guidelines for the Curriculum (Indicazioni 
nazionali per il curricolo). ɑccording to the “Indicazioni nazionali per il curricolo della scuola 
dell’Infanzia e del primo ciclo di Istruzione” of 2012, pupils are expected to reach level ɑ1 of the 
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) by the end of the five years of 
primary education. The new guidelines mainly focus on the development of oral linguistic skills and 
promote the development of basic intercultural competence. They invite the teachers to take into 
account 
“the ability of children to acquire spontaneously the models of pronunciation and intonation 
provided to them to enable more n
aturally a multilingual system” and that “in language learning 
motivation comes from the natural attitude of pupils to communicate, socialise, interact and their 
natural propensity to do with the language
”
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. Moreover, they suggest the use of activities such as 
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Decreto Legislativo 19th February 2004, n. 59 (art. 5) 
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Decreto Interministeriale 6th July 2009, n. 62 
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“Per quanto riguarda la lingua inglese nella scuola primaria, l’insegnante terrà conto della maggiore capacità del 
bambino di appropriarsi spontaneamente di modelli di pronuncia e intonazione per attivare più naturalmente un 
sistema plurilingue. Nell’apprendimento delle lingue la motivazione nasce dalla naturale attitudine degli alunni a 

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songs, nursery rhymes, roleplays and the use of authentic materials in order to keep the motivation 
high. In accordance with the CEFR phonological control grid (Table 1), by the end of primary 
education, Italian children’s English pronunciation should be “of a very limited repertoire of learnt 
words and phrases can be understood with some effort by native speakers used to dealing with 
speakers of his/her language group” (Council of Europe, 2001: 117).