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New Approaches to Teaching

Italian Language and Culture

New Approaches to Teaching Italian Language and Culture: Case Studies from an International Perspective, Edited by Emanuele Occhipinti

This book first published 2008 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2008 by Emanuele Occhipinti and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-84718-638-6, ISBN (13): 9781847186386

In loving memory of my mother Lina and my brother Massimo.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables and Figures .......................................................................... xi

Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Emanuele Occhipinti

Part I: Curricular Innovations

Chapter One.......................................................................................... 12 Eliminating the “Gap” Through Curricular Innovation Janice M. Aski and Heather Webb

Chapter Two ......................................................................................... 40 Task-based Instruction of Intermediate Italian: A Research-supported Model Tom Means

Chapter Three ....................................................................................... 62 What Can Be Obtained From Project Work? A Case Study Assunta Giuseppina Zedda

Chapter Four ......................................................................................... 84 The Conversation Hour: The Making of an Experiment Simona Wright

Chapter Five ....................................................................................... 119 Teaching Learnable Grammar Camilla Bettoni and Bruno Di Biase

viii Table of Contents

Part II: Teaching Italian with Technology

Chapter Six ......................................................................................... 140 Enhancing the Student Experience Through Technology: Making Language Learning More Meaningful through a Departmental VLE Clelia Boscolo, Alison Davies, Kelly Smith

Chapter Seven..................................................................................... 158 Azione! Teaching Listening Skills Through Video: A Web-based Program of Film and Television Segments Designed for Italian Language Courses at Yale University Amelia Moser

Chapter Eight ...................................................................................... 173 Confronti ng New Technologies: a Cross-Cultural Telecollaborative Project across the Ocean Silvia Carlorosi, Francesca Helm, Nicoletta Marini-Maio, Kathryn K McMahon

Chapter Nine....................................................................................... 210 Podcasting and iPod in Teaching and Learning Italian Language, Culture and Literature: a Research Study at Université de Montréal, Canada Jacqueline Samperi Mangan

Part III: Teaching Italian Translation

Chapter Ten ........................................................................................ 226 Teaching Italian Translation: a Challenge Luciana d’Arcangeli

Chapter Eleven.................................................................................... 247 Translation in Teaching Italian as L2: Evolution or Involution? Sandro Sciutti

x Table of Contents

Part V: Teaching Italian Culture Through Film

Chapter Twenty .................................................................................. 468 Italian Language and Culture in Close-Up: Using Film at All Levels of Proficiency Kerstin Pilz

Chapter Twenty-One........................................................................... 498 Teaching Visual Thinking, In and Out of the Italian Canon Thomas Erling Peterson

Chapter Twenty-Two.......................................................................... 519 Memory on the Margins: Reflections on Italy (1938-1943) in Scola’s Una giornata Particolare & Ozpetek’s La Finestra di Fronte Mary Ann McDonald Carolan

Part VI: Teaching Italian Culture Through Songs

Chapter Twenty-Three........................................................................ 540 Teaching Italian Culture Through Songs: “non solo canzonette” Paola Vettorel

Chapter Twenty-Four.......................................................................... 565 Italian Freaks and Punks: History of Italian Culture from 1950s to 2005 Retold by Protest Songs Silvia Boero

Contributors............................................................................................. 591

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

New Approaches to Teaching Italian Language and Culture xiii

Figure 8-2. The Word Association Questionnaire .................................. 180

Figure 8-3. Word Association answers on Father/Padre in the View and Compare pages.................................................................................. 181

Figure 8-4. Word Association answers on Individualism/ Individualismo in the View and Compare pages ..................................... 181

Table 8-1. Forum discussion of Word Association answers on Individualism/Individualismo............................................................... 182-

Table 8-2. Confronti partnerships described in this paper ................... 185-

Figure 8-5. Sample of ads (the authors made every effort to ask for copyright but there was no response at time of publication) ................... 189

Table 8-3. Guided Questions .................................................................. 189

Table 8-4. Forum ................................................................................. 191-

Table 8-5. Forum ................................................................................. 194-

Table 8-6. Transcript from the Skype conversation................................ 198

Figure 8-6. An American student waves at Italian students during a video conference................................................................................... 204

Figure 9-1. Photo by J. Samperi Mangan, ©2007 ................................. 210

Figure 9-2. Photo by J. Samperi Mangan, ©2007 .................................. 212

Table 10-1. Assessment ....................................................................... 234-

Figure 14-1. Photograph by Franco Pinna .............................................. 347

Figure 14-2. Advertisement visible in the background........................... 347

Figure 14-3. Poster by Partito Rifondazione Comunista (1992). From Archivio Marco Pezzi , Comune di Bologna................................... 348

Figure 14-4. Testa di vitello , Carlo Levi (September 5 th, 1935),

xiv List of Tables and Figures

 SIAE.................................................................................................... 349

Figure 16-1. Stress-adaptation-growth process...................................... 377

Figure 16-2. Factors Influencing Cross-cultural Adaptation. A structural Model. (Kim 2001, 87. Our adaptation) .............................. 380

Table 16-1. “Discutiamo insieme” questionnaire ................................... 384

Figure 16-3. Venn diagram comparing cultural habits ........................... 385

Table 16-2. “Guarda con gli occhi dell’altro”grid .................................. 386

Table 16-3. Diary Guideline (Byram 2000: 12. Our adaptation) ....... 389-

Table 16-4. Diary record form; (INCA Portfolio. Our adaptation)......... 390

Figure 18-1. Textbook cover ................................................................... 433

Table 18-1. An authentic cultural reading from the Italian Virtual Class first semester textbook discussing the city of Selinunte’s fish auction ..................................................................................................... 437

Table 18-2. Students return to the topic of the auction with a new level of knowledge ........................................................................................... 440

Table 18-3. Extension exercises after the fish auction reading, which include authentic interviews, individualized and personalized student web research, and real photos taken by students who visited the auction during their summer study in Italy...................................................................... 441

Table 20-1. Worksheet 1......................................................................... 481

Table 20-2. Worksheet 2......................................................................... 482

Table 20-3. Worksheet 3...................................................................... 483-

Table 20-4. Worksheet 4...................................................................... 488-

Table 20-5. Worksheet 5......................................................................... 490

I NTRODUCTION

EMANUELE O CCHIPINTI

The aim of this collection of essays is to fill a major gap in existing scholarship and textbooks devoted to the teaching of Italian language and culture. Although in the past there have been monographic issues of journals like Italica^1 devoted to some aspects of Italian pedagogy,^2 there has never been a systematic collection of essays on this topic with such a variety of contributions in a single volume. In today’s world the need to incorporate a rigorous study of foreign languages is more and more strongly felt: in schools and universities across the world it is standard for students to be expected to be proficient in at least one foreign language and also, often, to attend courses on aspects of culture and diversity. Additionally, in recent years, more and more scholars have become interested in effective language teaching methodology, and many universities are starting to hire people with specialized degrees in language pedagogy and Second Language Acquisition rather than PhDs in literature. This calls for specialized texts that can provide studies and examples of effective pedagogy of language teaching and testing that instructors and teacher trainers from different academic backgrounds can use in their classes. In the past decade, the study of Italian has grown everywhere in the world,^3 especially in the U.S., with a 22.6% increase since 2002, and the number of students reaching 78,368 in 2006^4 (rising from 11,000 in the

(^1) Italica is an American journal, published four times a year with articles on Italian

language, literature and linguistics. (^2) See, for example, Italica 77, no. 4 (2000), 78, no. 4 (2001) on some aspects of

Italian pedagogy, and 83, no, 1 (2006) on teaching film and culture. (^3) For a thorough analysis of teaching methods of Italian in the world see Paolo E.

Balboni and Matteo Santipolo eds., L’italiano nel mondo. Mete e metodi dell’insegnamento dell’italiano nel mondo. Un’indagine qualitativa (Roma: Bonacci editore, 2003). (^4) See the MLA report at http://www.mla.org/pdf/release11207_ma_feb_update.pdf

See also Nelly Furman, David Goldberg, and Natalia Lusin, “Enrollments in

New Approaches to Teaching Italian Language and Culture 3

perform the task that is recorded on video or audio; and a post-task activity in which students work on the transcripts of their activities and on grammar points introduced by the instructor. Thus, the structured input and output of the TBI model creates the basis for a more natural way to acquire fluency and improve accuracy. The third chapter expands on the notion that the best way to learn a foreign language is to put students in contact with real-life situations. The chapter deals with an innovative and flexible approach called “Project Work” that aims at integrating the theory of the language with its practical use in every day life. The didactic methodology of Project Work was applied to a class of Erasmus 7 students of Italian L2 in an Italian University. The chapter presents data obtained from the implementation of Project Work in which students were asked to assist in organizing a conference on second language acquisition with a series of related tasks including creating and distributing brochures and planning a cultural itinerary. The advantages of such a method are manifold, since students must incorporate their linguistic knowledge with a systematic use of different grammatical structures in a cooperative way, in which they not only need to interact with each other, but also with the world outside the classroom. Role-play became an essential part of this method because this helped the learner to act in a real situation (for example, students had to make phone calls in order to ask for estimates). Chapter Four explores the effectiveness and challenges of the “Conversation Hour Program” at The College of New Jersey in the U.S. The Conversation Hour builds on studies that show that shorter and more frequent contact with the foreign language is crucial to master what has been learned. Even though the author had to face some bureaucratic and organizational issues including, among other things, the preparation and supervision of the coordinators, in the end the experiment became a permanent reality expanding to all foreign languages taught at the College. The teaching approach was aimed to foster the five Cs (Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities) recommended by ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) with activities ranging from vocabulary building to short dialogues and role- plays.

(^7) The Erasmus project was created in 1987 and is named after the famous scholar

Erasmus of Rotterdam who lived and studied in many parts of Europe for the purpose of expanding his experience and knowledge. The program offers generous grants and allows students to study for a semester or an academic year in a European University, other than his/her own, and have the credits earned recognized in the home institution.

4 Introduction

The fifth and last chapter of the first section explores linguistic structures and their relationship to L2 development. The essay discusses what stages should be followed so that grammatical structures can be acquired at the appropriate level, without teaching structures that are too advanced, in order to speed the learning process. The progression is successfully achieved with Processability Theory that allows the instructor to teach structures at the right level according to a hierarchal sequence: lemma access, category, phrasal and sentence procedures. The experiment was carried out in a primary school in Sydney, Australia, in two Italian courses for 12 weeks. At the end of the experiment, children had learned in three months what they had not learned during a previous three-year period. Part II (“Teaching Italian with Technology”) deals with the fundamental tool of technology, integrated in nearly every curriculum thanks to the availability of computers and internet connections in tech- enhanced classrooms. The chapters in this section introduce some innovative projects, through the discussion of outcomes and goals. The first chapter explores the potential of WebCT a web-based tool with hyperlinks, images and colors, with the purpose of stimulating interest and improve effective learning of Italian at the University of Birmingham, UK. The experiment proved successful by boosting students’ confidence and interest thanks to a vast array of activities including discussion boards and online exercises with electronic feedback. The second chapter discusses the development of “Azione!,” a web- based program of Italian film and television segments used in the elementary and intermediate Italian language courses at Yale University. The program was designed to allow students going abroad to be more comfortable in real-life situations and teach them to “listen selectively” and “listen for specific content.” The topics of the segments range from health, environment and technology, travel, and politics to growing up and the family, and the flexibility of the program facilitates its integration with any textbook. Students have the ability to expand and reinforce their knowledge with activities of increasing difficulty. Furthermore, the unabridged clips help them to become accustomed to the normal speed of the language, with exposure to various accents and regional differences. “Confronti” is the name of an innovative project, and topic of the third chapter of this section, developed cooperatively among the University of Padova, the University of Pennsylvania and Middlebury College in the U.S., and based on the Cultura French Project created at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The goal of integrating culture into the curriculum is achieved through a common website and communication