From High School to University Language Teaching: Facing the Challenge and Bridging the Gap

In an enlarged and multilingual Europe learning a foreign language (possibly from a very young age) can enable people to move freely across countries thus expanding their job opportunities and enriching their cultural baggage. Language learning shapes and reinforces people's identity and increases understanding and appreciation for other cultures. In the last few decades foreign language teaching has become compulsory across Europe. In Italy, foreign language teaching is compulsory from primary school to University and all University students must study at least one foreign language regardless of their discipline. The issue of transition becomes crucial in this respect, especially from high school language teaching method to University system and it proves to be challenging and extremely hard to handle in some cases. Notwithstanding the importance of learning a second language, the dilemma is how to do it at University where classes are larger, lectures tend to be professor-centred and self-study issues are not totally clear. This paper attempts to show how the gap between high school teaching and University teaching can be fulfilled so as to facilitate transition from young education to adult (and more professional) education. Problems, causes and possible solutions will be outlined and extensively discussed. The theoretical considerations covered in the first part of this study will be illustrated through a case study of teaching English to first-year University students in Italy. Issues regarding motivation, active learning, class participation and management, self-study strategies and class behaviour will be explored in detail.