Affective and inclusive language learning through WhatsApp: a case study on trainee teachers and Italian L2 learners in a multilingual and multicultural background

Abstract

The aim of the present study is twofold: 1 to investigate the strategies used by a group of trainee teachers during the implementation via WhatsApp of pre-task activities inspired by the autobiographical approach; 2. to analyse whether and how learners show emotional engagement through online messages, referred here as the ability to express their own personal sphere in the host country’s language. The case study consists of the observation of 900 WhatsApp messages sent over a period of 39 days, aimed at carrying out 9 pre-task activities to enhance the intra-personal emotional sphere. The data were collected during an Italian L2 course designed for students of A2 level according to Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) with a multilingual and multicultural background and taught by trainee teachers.
The quantitative-qualitative survey, carried out on the basis of studies analysing digital communication and supported by the autobiographical approach, shows that pre-tasks offered the community of practice the opportunity to go beyond the teaching activity and to build an affiliate network with emotionally engaging communicative spaces, enriched by iconographic material and stylistically and linguistically refined life stories. From a professional perspective, the study shows the path taken by trainee teachers to acquire skills and competences – stylistic, pragmatic, linguistic, interactional and emotional – necessary to foster forms of affective and inclusive language learning through multimodal resources.