Valenza e insegnamento della lingua straniera

Abstract

This work deals with valency, a key syntactic notion whose chemistry-inspired label was established by Lucien Tesnière (1959), one of the most well-known contributors to the Prague Linguistic Circle. We will concentrate on two questions: (a) to what extent does valency play a role in Second Language Learning (SLL)?; and (b) what role should the use of valency play in language teaching practices? This paper will provide answers to these questions and propose reasons for motivating the use of valency in SLL.