NOUN PHRASES IN THE INTERLANGUAGE OF CHINESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS LEARNING ITALIAN AS A SECOND FOREIGN LANGUAGE: A CORPUS STUDY

The present study shows the results of a longitudinal research on a corpus of oral productions by Chinese learners of Italian as a Second Language in an academic context. The study presents the theoretical underpinnings on corpora research and the state of the art for the Italian language as well as the studies done on the development of the interlanguage and the acquisitional theories underlying the process of language acquisition concerning the Italian language. Specifically, it focuses on the patterns of acquisition of the noun phrase. Successively, the methodology of the research is explained and the data is presented and statistically analysed. Finally, pedagogical suggestions are drawn from the data gathered.