Re-routing the Italian undergraduate - the way to autonomy and responsibility.

The first chapter, by Lilia Cesare Poggi, is a brief overview of the distance learning approach in education in general, and in Italy, in particular, the most important predecessor being The Open University in Britain. The main part of the volume, by Janet Bowker, is a description of the application of distance learning modes in foreign language university provision in the context of a crucial moment of change in Italian education. It contains a detailed academic and professional foreign language needs analysis profile of the Italian learner, the evolution of multi-media syllabuses and course methods, and illustrates the innovatory materials designed by herself and Derrick Plant, recently introduced in the Sapienza University of Rome. The rational for this paradigm shift is provided in psycholinguistic substantiation and socio-cultural contextual exigencies.