What it takes to teach and learn Italian

hi my name is daniela zappador

guerra it is guerra not guerra

same meaning and spelling but italian

pronunciation

i’m italian i teach italian at cal state

long beach university

and i’m happy to be here to share with

you some thoughts of what

it takes to teach and learn my language

so i want to start with a question for

you what do you think people want to

talk about

when they take an italian class what is

the main topic

do you think it’s art music

or literature history

food that one it is it is food

why well we don’t need to be

anthropologists to know that food brings

people together

it creates a wonderful environment that

facilitates connection

within the kitchen the semantic area

of pasta pizza and tiramisu

doesn’t raise any concern about being

politically correct who’s obsessed about

food though

which kind of learners tourists

travelers

they want to go to italy and be

able to pronounce with perfect

pronunciation

bruschetta actually here they say

bruschetta and that worries me

because it reminds me of a famous

mafia’s last name

you don’t want to go to italy and say

bonjour no buchetta perfect

but yes generally

tourists are also concerned about items

that they see

in some menus they want to know what

they are

those items might not be common here in

some

menus imagine for example in my region

in piemonte

we eat carne cruda what is that

delicious

meat seasoned with a lot of lemon but

it is raw meat what is

another item coniglio we eat cornelio

what is that

delicious meat cooked with wine

but it’s not exactly our pet bunny but

it is rabbit

so tourists they have the reasons to

to learn italian but food applies also

maybe in the first day of class imagine

you are in my class the first day

go on and write down a list of

italian words that you already know

teachers

language teachers know that um

it makes people feel comfortable you

know starting with a

list of things that they already know so

what do you have in your list

do you have buongiorno ciao

do you have maybe mafia

or names of celebrities

for example what sofia lauren or andrea

buchelli

or i don’t know michelangelo berlusconi

not that one anymore but i know

the majority of items in your list are

dishes italian dishes but what

about students huh so not necessarily

tourists why do they take italian what

is their motivation

well if they are enrolled in a language

programme

at cal state long beach the department

is called

rgrl romance german

[Music]

romance german russian languages and

literatures

then they take italian because it’s a

requirement

and it is maybe related to some other

subjects

you know students who major in art

fashion

industrial design voice performing music

they take italian because it helps with

their studies

right in their subject but i’ve seen a

lot of

senior students they wait to the last

year of university to spend what they

saved the units they saved

to spend them in my class to spend them

to learn italian and go to their

graduation gift trip to italy and you

guys

i wish you to be able to go there soon

when this pandemic is under control

but let’s face it if you speak english

if you speak spanish you’ll need my

language to survive

and then i tell you there are students

who come over with

great enthusiasm i remember the one who

walked in and said hi my name is jack

but you can call me fabio

why fabio maybe jacob would be a better

cognate right

but still he was ready to come in

and get into my italian

virtual neighborhood and he was ready to

create his own italian avatar

that’s what happens when you maybe you

take italian as a

distant learner and you see you in the

screen

speaking and sounding italian and some

people get embarrassed for that

especially young people they don’t want

to sound different

their favorite adjective is actually

awkward

they don’t want to sound awkward right

they don’t want to make mistakes they

don’t want any embarrassment but i tell

them

there’s no embarrassment in a classroom

we all sound the same

and the dynamic of a language class an

italian class is that you have to

interact with other people

there’s no way that you sit in a corner

taking notes

you really need to try

and of course it’s the languages what do

we do with the language we talk

but i remember a student who was very

concerned about that he was

shy um a little bit introverted

he actually didn’t want to do the skit

what is the skit something they have to

perform at the end of the semester

he was terrified so he asked me if he

could instead

sing an aria from the italian opera

an arya from my italian culture

that’s wonderful and in fact i tell you

his voice his performance gave us

la pele doca we say in italian

goosebumps

it was what i call a glorious italian

moment

italian moments are encounters that you

have with my language in your daily life

i know you meet my language and my

culture even here

in different occasions commercials in tv

movies people you meet at the airport in

some shops

so report that to my class because it’s

like

bringing the world inside establishing

connections between here and there

and i remember a student telling us the

story about her mom

her mom called her when she was eating

lunch at starbucks and asked

what are you eating panini and she said

mom i don’t eat more than one

so you should say panino singular

her italian moment for us was

teaching a grammar lesson to her mom

and that was special right it’s

what we call metalinguistic awareness

you’re ready to discuss

what is a language how it works and it

goes together with

metacognitive awareness

students need to realize that when they

learn a language

something happens in their brain the

brain

let’s say develops a new area like

growing new

muscles gymnastics for the brain it’s

good

against the dementia they say so

i like to look at pictures

that neuroscientists provide

mapping the brain of a second language

learner

or mapping the brain of a translator

believe me it looks like an amusement

park

and i use this metaphor of construction

i ask my students to check their

awareness

of their learning so how is your

construction site in your left frontal

lobe

are you in the basement still do you

think are you

in the first floor and of course

starting from the basement and going to

the highest

floor of a skyscraper of

proficiency it takes time and

consistency but we are with you

teachers are with the students in the

basement and they start with

simple procedures simple practices

like negotiating meaning

with the students by using tpr

what is tpr it’s called total physical

response

and it’s involving

in teaching a lot of gestures which is

not a problem for an italian teacher

what do you think

i use it with my dog

my bilingual dog i say andiamo

andiamo i actually don’t move anymore he

knows he connected the movement with the

world and i use

i say biscotto and of course that’s food

so it’s easier for

for him right so awareness

of what happens in your brain that’s

important we use other methodologies

we mix them up we borrow them from

linguists

who come up every time with different

practices

for teaching and learning and for

example we

we started many years ago with a

communicative method

which asked us to provide a

reasonable input to our students with no

interferences from other languages

we were afraid and forbidden to use

english or spanish or any other

languages when teaching italian but now

we use the intercomprehension

methodology

which on the contrary encourages

you to use anything you know from

another romance language

to learn a new one any transparency for

example

guerra guerra right and so

what was considered a disadvantage and

an interference in the past

now is split to be an advantage and a

valuable

thing in fact we built fast track

courses for spanish speakers we have

in our graziadio center for italian

studies at cal state long beach

we have faster track courses for spanish

speaker italian for spanish speakers

french for spanish speakers and

we even brought grammars for them so

we use them in those courses

flipping is something we are willing to

do we are willing to change

so for example we flipped the sequence

of homework and class work

homework is not anymore what you do

after listening to lectures in class

homework is something to do to prepare

for

we do in class together

and when we flip the classroom also in

class

we do different exercises we don’t do

mechanic exercises that don’t have any

meaningful connection with our students

lives

we ask them to to do

what we called task based activities

for example i asked my students to write

an email in italian

they they come up with questions what do

you mean any mail what kind of

formulas i have to use what kind of

greetings so it’s related to real life

but at the same time i ask them to write

poetry and you might think this

is crazy no poetry i don’t write poetry

in my own language how can i write

poetry in a foreign language it’s

impossible it’s intimidating

but it’s not and the results i’ve seen

from my students are

amazing from the beginners to the master

level

they produce pieces of poetry that

are liberating they express their their

sentiments

their emotions they they actually play

with with words with sounds because

poetry is music language is music

so another another practice that is back

in fashion is translation we opened a

new center

in case long beach is called

clarinda donato center for romance

languages and translation studies

why do students enroll in that program

because they know it offers

a opportunity

to to work job opportunities

and that’s important it’s important to

realize that what you do in a class

of language doesn’t end there it is

related to the real world

i’ve seen first of all lasting

friendship being born

in a language class because students

interact and get to know each other

they are not isolated but also students

spend their skills developed in a

language class

outside when they go study abroad and

when they go study abroad we take them

for a week a month an entire year or

semester we take them

to different cities main cities like

roma

firenze venezia but also small towns

like

in the market region and they not only

go visiting museums

they actually work there they enroll in

internships and i’ve seen them

transformed

there’s a miracle there um i

even took pictures of my students i

brought a bunch of students to florence

for a semester a few years ago

and i took a pictures before and after

and there was a change in them

their souls in their mind and in their

body

they were more confident

willing to listen they became better

listeners

they they were more tolerant

curious respectful respectful towards

diversity and that’s what we need from

better human beings right that’s why i

i tried my best on my side when students

are coming from another culture

i want to know about their culture i

took several semesters of spanish to

know better my students it’s a

reciprocal

mutual effort to understand each other

and that’s the reason why i feel sad

when i hear that many universities are

shutting down their language programs

and that’s why i i’m asking you

if you are an educator if you are a

parent if you are an administrator

consider really to advocate for language

studies

it’s good at any age not only

to prevent dementia for some people but

also

to create a better you uh to transform

yourself to become a better human being

and it’s not that difficult it starts

from you know a lot of gestures and

maybe

simple words like brusqueta so

please think about that and thank you

you