Pulmonary Hypertension and Pregnancy: Correction.

This paper investigates the several advantages of using conceptual maps (CMs) in the teaching of English as a foreign language in Italian elementary schools. Traditionally, CMs are used to favour the acquisition of cultural elements rather than grammatical means, a limitation which does not depend on the CMs but on the misleading way teachers interpret their use. Our informants are students of two different elementary schools in Campobasso (Molise). On the basis of the most recent works by Novak, Guastavigna e Gineprini and in contrast with the traditional employment of CMs, this paper proposes some experiments in order to test the following hypotheses: a) Do CMs represent a valid means to teach the grammar of a foreign language (FL)?; b) Do they help students to acquire simultaneously both the grammar of a language and cultural elements by reducing the teaching hours of a FL? The answers to these two questions are positive. In particular, the b point is clearly supported by some tests we gave to the students involved in the inquiry, which demonstrated that students exposed to CMs show better results in the acquisition of the FL than students who have been taught the same subjects in a traditional way, namely without CMs.