It’s a new term. For me it’s a new school, for a term, and a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with a colleague to design Italian language learning experiences that will encourage our students from Pre-K to Year 6 to become attentive and reflective listeners, interested in the lives and stories of others and what they can learn from them.
As we prepare, we have been questioning and considering: Why do I teach this content this way? How can we shift the focus from ‘I’ to ‘other’? How can we create more meaningful language learning opportunities with a focus on hospitality? How can we infuse our lessons with a winsome mix of authenticity, humour, collaboration, action and reflection which will engage an energetic jumble of boys? All in 30 minutes a week. Will we succumb to "let's be realistic"? Or take up the challenge to be ambitiously real!
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What expectations do our students have in learning another language? Can we invite them to imagine their learning differently?
Often the emphasis is on learning to speak another language, rather than learning to hear another language. The focus is to communicate and get your message across. As Christian educators, we have the opportunity to present students with a different picture of the purpose of language learning, motivated by the call to love God and our neighbour. Finding myself between jobs, I have lately gone back to the Primary classroom as a casual substitute teacher...
Working as a ‘sub’ can be very instructive to understanding what it’s like to be a stranger in a foreign land, without the tiresome plane trip. In processing the experience I've realised there is value in considering: could there be applications here for the Languages classroom? In my Italian language classes it is not unusual for a variety of language backgrounds to be represented. One way we practise hospitality towards classmates in Kindy is to learn to count in each other’s first language (L1), establishing the foundation that language forms an important part of our identity and that all people (represented by their languages) are welcome.
However, I had not really given much thought to building and encouraging L1 or heritage language in subsequent years. After all, learning Italian is the goal, isn't it? My guest blogger this week is Joanne Fenton, Languages Faculty Head at Macarthur Anglican School, where Indonesian is taught from Kindergarten through to Year 12. She writes:
“Where are you from?” “Wow, you are so good at Indonesian!” “Where are you studying?” Anyone who has visited Indonesia will know the friendliness of the Indonesian people. People love to ask questions of tourists, showing great interest in the Australian way of life and in us as individuals. As Christians, we are called to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and to love our neighbour as ourselves. What if we could give our students a simple but practical way to show love and care for others through teaching them conversational skills? |
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