The present action-research was carried out at UCL and originated in the observation that learning the Italian language was not perceived by ab initio students as connected to their personal and academic experiences.

An initial hypothesis was formulated that an early introduction to literary texts accompanied by tasks could favour the interlanguage development in ab initio University students. In particular, interlanguage development, mainly as far as written production is concerned, may be facilitated in learners who are trained to elaborate an input, which is recognized as ‘meaningful', through noticing and attention management tasks, and through tasks focusing on production, which have an influence on the re-organization of forms and meaning. Therefore, the action-research aimed at verifying how written performance in ab initio students reflected the integration of language and content.

The method of the three years (2002-05) study was a qualitative approach in any stage, i.e. pre-actional , actional, and post-actional stage (students' production).

During the action-research, a course was devised and was called TTC (Text and Task Course), in which texts were the starting point and the model necessary to process language through tasks. Linguistically easy short literary extracts, of about 300 words each, have been selected and they represented different text types such as letters and dialogues, poems and ballads, narratives and descriptions, each of them dealing with topics familiar to the learners. Each text was accompanied and enhanced by pre, while and production tasks. Production tasks in particular favoured interlanguage development and the re-elaboration of texts and combined representational structures with controlled attention.

Measures for written production during TTC were : Holistic Rating (fluency and creativity), Accuracy Ratios (intelligibility index and error index) and Complexity Ratios (dependent and coordinate clauses per t-units ratio and re-elaboration of a model or text type).

In the light of these considerations, it seems consistent to claim that the positive results in written production, after a relative short time of instruction, was influenced by the training TTL (Texts and Tasks Learners) received in the TTC.

In conclusion, the initial hypothesis was confirmed. In fact, an input relevant to the learner, i.e. related to content courses, to be processed through tasks, raises and maintains motivation and allows a rapid interlanguage change and development.