Words (un)Defined. Strategies of Multimedia Learning

This paper focuses on the difficulties that children with sociocultural
disadvantage encounter in mastering language and on the use of
software-supported teaching strategies for improving learning. The paper
illustrates an experiment that was carried out in collaboration with
Direzione Didattica Statale F. Crispi (Palermo, Italy) and involved two
pupils with particularly poor linguistic backgrounds. The aim of the
experiment was twofold: to test the potential of Addizionario, a
hypermedia tool developed by the institute of computational linguistics of
CNR in Pisa (Italy), to improve the pupils’ linguistic competence; and to
provide an amusing and stimulating context for language learning. For
both children, the results highlighted a significant increase in their Italian vocabularies and in their interest in Italian language learning.