L’impiego dei tempi passati nei racconti degli immigrati nell’area di Napoli

The lesson has focused on the expression of past temporal relations with respect to biographic and fictional narratives by several groups of immigrant learners living in Naples and the surrounding area. The work evaluates the different input learners are exposed to (Passato Remoto, Passato Prossimo, Imperfetto), their different L1 languages and the way they acquired Italian. Learners groups’ results were always compared to reference Italian L1 groups. My analysis has demonstrated that immigrant learners use the past forms but that their employment can diverge with respect to the discourse principles that these forms detain in Italian L1 speakers’ narrations, with evident consequences for the consecutio temporum and the holistic organization of the text. Furthermore, all the groups exploit, the Passato Remoto morphemes, dropping, at least partly, the “auxiliary + Past Participle” analytical strategy (a); they still have problems with imperfectiveness and the use of past in subordination.