Expanding design skills for language teachers: a corpus-based web application for ‘language for work’ content creation in Italian L2

Abstract

Many adult migrants lacking L2 linguistic autonomy cannot afford the time to master host countries’ languages before providing for their basic needs. Thus, second language training that focuses on occupational integration is at times more urgent than a more generally social one, as the European ‘language for work’ approach suggests. Given the shortage of both support sector experts in Italian L2 classes and an appropriate variety of teaching materials for beginners, this paper introduces a PhD work-in-progress project proposing an IT procedure which enables language teachers to collaboratively design specialised multimedia content for beginners, thus enhancing work-related second language development. The article discusses the results of some preliminary surveys and argues the importance of the use of technology when expanding teachers’ design skills.