In this section you'll find papers written by scholars of free access and Power-Point presentations made at Conferences that might be useful for Italian Language Teachers and Scholars.
Foreign language teachers all face the same challenges. One of the largest challenges is trying to import the culture of their language into the classroom. In recent years, technology has been an important ally in this effort by providing easy access to realia. However, teachers need to choose their materials with care because sometimes they can appear “fake” or “prepackaged,” which can make students disengage.
One way to refresh Italian language curricula, particularly in the second year of college study, is to consider a content-based instruction. Opera may appear to be unsuited to the early years of college language study. The librettos, with the exception of a few phrases, are not a linguistic model for someone trying to communicate in modern Italian. However, opera can indeed be effective and enjoyable when approached thematically.
Italian language is immediately associated with a single nation: Italy. It is therefore very important for students of Italian to be exposed to texts and audiovisual materials that show the country, where the language they study is actually spoken, as it really is. Italy has changed a great deal in the last thirty years: it has become multicultural, and it has experienced the fall of the political party system that came into being after World War II.
Secondo le raccomandazioni dell'ACTFL, per rendere l,esperienza di apprendimento di una lingua straniera realmente efficace, deve a\,venire all'interno deia classe uno scambio comunicativo che sia quasi esclusivamente nella Iingua target.
Italian culture is often related to pizza, mandolino and La dolce vita. The Commedia all’Italiana has often been chosen as the most representative of the Italian life-style, thanks to the realism and subjectivism that characterizes the Commedia. Nowadays, Italian culture and language is changing and we, as Italian teachers, must be aware of its changes in order to show to our learners a significant picture.
