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Problems for learners in Italy?ITALY?S FOREIGN LANGUAGE EMERGENCY?, ?english KNOWLEDGE: IN SPITE OF INVESTMENTS, ITALY?S STILL AMONG THE LAST?, ?ITALIANS STUDY english BUT MORE THAN HALF DO NOT SPEAK IT?. These are some of the many headlines that hit the newspapers. As many recent studies have shown, the great majority of Italians is not familiar with the english language. This is not surprising considering that in spite of the progress made there is still a long way to go to improve in this area. Like in many countries around the world, the only contact that most italian english students will have to interact in an english speaking environment will be at school or at a private english course. Language acquisition is a process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend a language, as well as to produce and use words to communicate (Wikipedia). As children we all acquired our own mother tongue (L1) through this process. Recreating this natural environment in a classroom is unrealistic if not impossible but through the implementation of the different EFL methods we can hope to achieve that goal to a certain extent. Many studies suggest that the latest theories are in essence the fruit of real needs, or because english has become the official language in the world. english is spoken all over this planet and is mostly spoken by people who are not native speakers. In many cases lower grammar and pronunciation levels are accepted provided that communication flows. Here in Italy it seems that english in all its forms should concentrate on the teaching of successful communication strategies and that the students should be graded on a communication basis rather than on a pure grammatical one. It?ll take years before this new attitude takes root in the italian school system and in other school systems around the world, but students that have benefitted from this type of education based on communication will be better prepared to face the working world of tomorrow compared to the ones that will have concentrated exclusively on learning grammar. Here in Italy, speaking english used to be perceived as a privilege reserved for the higher classes, now in the last 20 years due to globalization, urbanization and wide Internet use, this way of thinking has radically changed. Slowly, people are beginning to realize that learning english is a basic requirement for work just like in the case with literacy in the latest two centuries. It is becoming a necessary requirement for all citizens and not just a certain elite?s privilege. Today more than ever knowing english is closely related to this country?s internal gross product: employers and human resource managers reveal that the applicants looking for a job that possess a good english knowledge come out on top when compared to the rest, and that they are more likely to get 30-50% higher salaries. A good english knowledge goes hand in hand with the working world, a world where knowing this language gets translated into higher income possibilities.
