L'intercomprensione come strumento al servizio della didattica delle lingue romanze nella scuola secondaria di primo grado

The aim of this thesis is to explore and analyse the inclusion of an intercomprehension (IC) course in secondary school Romance language classes: in particular, in the Italian class of a French school and in the French class of an Italian school. The hypothesis is that this inclusion, at the beginning of foreign language study, can have positive effects on FL learning in terms of: linguistic competence, strategic competence, motivation to learn. Two experiments were carried out, characterised on the one hand by aspects of action research (e.g. the authenticity of the context) and on the other by elements of empirical experimental research, in particular the presence of control groups. The results of the research were fairly positive, showing that IC can have positive effects on foreign language learning and that it can be integrated into language courses.