La didattica della lingua tedesca in prospettiva valenziale: uno studio di caso

The essay focuses on the promotion of valency theory in the field of language teaching, especially in teaching German as a foreign language. A major boost to its dissemination in Italy is due to Germano Proverbio’s challenging translation of Tesnière’s work, one of the many research fields where he proved to be an authentic innovator, remaining still today an inspiration for those working in language education. Although the German tradition in such area is already well established both in terms of grammar and lexicography, the illustrated case-study in an Italian secondary school shows a valuable opportunity for students of German, carried out in order to examine the learning effectiveness of valency grammar, moving away from mere grammar to deepening language awareness – which perfectly aligns with current theories of Second Language Acquisition, fostering learner-centered approaches and the development of metalinguistic knowledge.