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