Perception of success among participants to the national contest in Italian ad a foreign and as second language

Abstract

The paper aims, first, to offer a brief sketch of the history of the national foreign- language competition in Slovenia, and, second, to describe the structure of the competition in Italian as a foreign and second language. In the main part of article, some results of the questionnaire given to the participants of the 2013 competition are presented and discussed, focusing specifically on the perceptions of success (or lack of it) in relation to the participants’ performance in the following areas: reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, intercultural knowledge, oral communication (in written form) and written composition.

Key words: Italian, foreign/second language, language testing, successful learners, perception of success.