The Distributed Classroom: Facing New Challenges in the Implementation of Italian Language Courses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The dissemination of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the social and cultural systems has given rise to a flow of information characterized by rapidity, sharing and co-creation of contents, generating new ways and new strategies to learn and build relationships. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and with the need for social distancing, this process has undergone a profound acceleration, inevitably involving the field of languages and leading to a substantial reshaping of many aspects of learning and teaching. The challenges to be faced in the different phases of the realization of a language course are certainly numerous and, among these, the most important is to make learning meaningful exploiting technology. This paper intends to describe the model adopted by the University for Foreigners of Perugia to provide Italian distance Italian language courses: the training process involves the community of learners in different technology enhanced learning environments, where students acquire linguistic and communicative knowledge and skills. The courses take place in synchronous way, promoting interaction and instant feedback exchange between participants, and in asynchronous way, to offer students the opportunity to choose the learning mode that best suits their needs, fostering their autonomy in handling incoming information. Firstly, the theoretical matrices that led to the choice of the adopted model will be illustrated. Secondly, the aspects of design, implementation, monitoring and review will be described, providing some examples based on our experience with a distance Italian language course for beginners. The aim is to share some insights on distance language learning, outlining a few perspectives on future developments in this area.