Second Language Teachers’ Education: the Case of the Italian CPIA

This paper focuses on Percorsi di Alfabetizzazione e Apprendimento della Lingua Italiana ( Percorsi AALI). Percorsi AALI are the Italian language courses for foreigners organised by CPIAs, which are the formal Italian schools for adults. The paper describes and compares the profiles of Percorsi AALI teaching staff Percorsi AALI teaching staff mainly consists of primary school teachers, but there are also some secondary school teachers and a small number of A23 teachers, who are the only ones to have a specialisation in teaching Italian as a second or foreign language. Since teachers’ education and professionalism have a considerable effect on the appropriateness of teaching methods and learning outcomes, focusing on these points is of great interest.