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.