A new phase for English teacher education in Italy. Testing and training for Tirocinio Formativo Attivo (TFA)

  • Virginia Pulcini Università degli Studi di Torino
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2384-8987/516
Keywords: EFL teacher education, ELT, language testing

Abstract

This article is a report on the programme of teacher training education, known nationally as Tirocinio Formativo Attivo (TFA), i.e. Active Educational Training, implemented at the University of Torino in 2012-2013, with particular reference to the training of teachers of English in Italian secondary schools. The novelty of this programme lies in the fact that, compared to the past, for the first time courses were entirely planned and managed by universities. The purpose of this report is to bear witness to a procedure which, in spite of its transitory nature, will contribute to the organization of future teacher education programmes, when they come into force, showing both weak and strong points that emerged throughout this experience. First, the criteria adopted for designing and evaluating competitive admission tests are described. Then the contents of the ELT course offered to trainees are presented and discussed.

Author Biography

Virginia Pulcini, Università degli Studi di Torino

Full Professor of English Language and Translation at the University of Torino, Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Modern Cultures. She has published over 40 journal articles and book chapters in many fields of English linguistics, including phonetics and phonology, ELT, discourse analysis, learner English, lexicology, lexicography and corpus linguistics, mainly from an English-Italian cross-linguistic perspective. She has taken part in international research projects such as the compilation of the Dictionary of European Anglicisms, edited by Manfred Görlach (Oxford University Press 2001) and the LINDSEI corpus (Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage 2010). Her most productive research area is the lexical influence of English on Italian. She is now Principal Investigator of the project “English in Italy: Linguistic, Educational and Professional Challenges”. Her most recent volume is The Anglicization of European Lexis, co-edited with Cristiano Furiassi and Félix Rodríguez González (John Benjamins 2012).

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Published
2014-06-30
How to Cite
Pulcini, V. (2014). A new phase for English teacher education in Italy. Testing and training for Tirocinio Formativo Attivo (TFA). RiCOGNIZIONI. Rivista Di Lingue E Letterature Straniere E Culture Moderne, 1(1), 95-106. https://doi.org/10.13135/2384-8987/516
Issue
Vol. 1 No. 1 (2014)
Section
InCONTRI

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