Writing a guidebook. When online tandem learning supports foreign language acquisition

This contribution will present an on-line tandem learning project between the Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics of the University of Pisa (Italy) and the Cornell University, at Ithaca, New York (U.S.A.). It will be highlighted how the structure of the project fulfills the requisites for the acquisition of a foreign language and how the activities were intended for the activation of the mental circuits supporting learning. These, according to the stimulus appraisal model by Schumann (1999, 2001), include the dimensions of novelty, pleasantness, goal/need significance, coping potential and the self-social image preservation