Relatore Chiar mo Prof. Graziano Serragiotto Correlatore

PHONOLOGICAL CONTROL
C2
As C1
C1
Can vary intonation and place sentence stress correctly in order to express finer shades of 
meaning.
B2
Has acquired a clear, natural, pronunciation and intonation.
B1
Pronunciation is clearly intelligible even if a foreign accent is sometimes evident and 
occasional mispronunciations occur.
A2
Pronunciation is generally clear enough to be understood despite a noticeable foreign accent, 
but conversational partners will need to ask for repetition from time to time.
A1
Pronunciation 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.
Table 1: The CEFR phonological control grid. Source: Council of Europe (2001: 117)
 
According to the financial law passed in 2005
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all primary school teachers are required to 
undertake a training in order to become adequately specialised for teaching the English language to 
their pupils. Consequently, this involves the elimination of specialist teachers
8
. However, nowadays, 
even though it is expected that English is taught by specialised generalist teachers
9
, in practice, 
English is still also taught by specialist teachers. This is often due to the fact that that not all generalist 
teachers have acquired enough competence in this area.
The minimum competency level that primary school teachers are expected to reach 
corresponds to level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
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comunicare, socializzare, interag
ire e dalla loro naturale propensione a “fare con la lingua””. 
(http://www.indicazioninazionali.it/J/) 
7
Legge finanziaria per il 2005 (art. 1, comma 128) 
8
Specialist teacher: a teacher who is qualified to teach only English to many different classes. 
9
Generalist teacher: a class teacher who is qualified to teach all (or almost all) subjects in the curriculum, including 
English. 
10
Nota n.1446 of 29
th
July 2005 

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Therefore, in accordance with the CEFR phonological control grid (Table 1), 
primary school teachers’ 
pronunciation should be at least “clearly
intelligible even if a foreign accent is sometimes evident and 
occasional mispronunciations occur” (Council of Europe, 2001: 117).