The role of ‘learning to learn’ in second and foreign language education in Italy

After framing the concept of ‘learning to learn’ related to metacognitive pedagogy and learner autonomy in second and foreign language education, the authors will give a brief historical review of how they have affected and continues to influence teaching practices in Italy, following, or in spite of, various institutional reforms that have taken place in the last thirty years, and thanks to international stimuli. It is worth noticing that, despite ‘learning to learn’, ‘metacognitive pedagogy’, ‘learner autonomy’, etc., are concepts connected to the learning process in general, they will be here referred in particular to language learning, while being aware that it is often difficult to establish clear boundaries. Far from being comprehensive, the experiences and projects selected by the authors report encouraging results, in spite of a few inconsistencies that still limit the spread and integration of a culture of autonomy in the Italian school and university context.