La pragmatica alla scuola primaria: tra ricerca e insegnamento. Un'osservazione longitudinale delle ricadute didattiche di una sperimentazione educativa.

The present paper describes a longitudinal study conducted as part of the educational research action plan Oggi facciamo pragmatica aiming at introducing pragmatics in the language education curriculum in primary school. Data were collected in one classroom in grade 3 and grade 4, in two teaching modules focusing on requests in spoken interaction. The study was set up in order to investigate requesting by 8-9 years old children in oral production, children’s ability to reflect on language use, and the effects over time of the two teaching modules. Results confirm the importance of teaching pragmatics already at prima-ry school. Through explicit pragmatic instruction children have the opportunity to improve their linguistic skills while refining their meta-pragmatic ability to reflect on language, thus promoting the connection between theory and language use.