Incorporating Linguistic Landscape as Authentic Material in Teaching Italian for Acquiring Linguistic-Communicative Competencies

In the daily context in which we operate, we consistently encounter linguistic and communicative challenges identified year after year among students of the Italian language. Consequently, a project was designed, within the framework of which this study is being carried out, with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the persistent issues inherited from previous years of study. One of this project's primary objectives was identifying, through fieldwork, the difficulties students face in developing communicative competence, examined from various perspectives. These perspectives include the use of authentic materials as well as the integration of technology in Italian language learning. For this purpose, a structured questionnaire divided into several sections was developed in order to gather students’ opinions. Among the questions formulated, particular attention was devoted to the use of authentic materials. The overall evaluation revealed that the majority of students expressed a strong desire to integrate authentic and engaging materials into their Italian language classes. Based on the results found this study aims to explore and integrate authentic materials derived from the linguistic landscape into foreign language classrooms to facilitate the acquisition of various linguistic and communicative competencies. By designing learning units that incorporate authentic materials such as advertisements, murals, and digital resources available online and by developing activities aimed at bringing students closer to the target language reality, the study highlights the potential of the linguistic landscape as a motivational and effective pedagogical tool for mastering linguistic-communicative competencies, particularly discursive and formulaic ones.