Lingua e comunità in coro

Abstract

This article concerns a special learning space populated by Italians and Italian learners: the choir formed in Brisbane as a joint initiative between a community association and the Italian teaching staff at Griffith University. Our aim, in involving our students in the choir, was to bring them together with L1 speakers in an environment that would be stimulating but supportive, given the collective, creative goal. We envisaged that interaction in this space would help develop the students’ language proficiency, intercultural competence, and cultural knowledge, while also bringing the psychosocial benefits of choral singing identified by recent research. These benefits include positive emotions, social support and friendship, an antidote to anxiety and stress, and a shared sense of commitment. Evaluation of findings from the project suggest that the choir did foster students’ learning together with wellbeing.

A scoping review of international mindedness and related concepts in music education, 2000–2020

“…Two studies focus on choral singing in relation to either intercultural understanding (Bartolome, 2018) or intercultural competence (Kennedy & Miceli, 2017). Kennedy and Miceli (2017), for example, examined a bilingual choir in Brisbane, Australia, which was developed to help tertiary students learning Italian improve their language proficiency, psychological well‐being, intercultural competence and cultural knowledge. Through conducting a mixed‐methods evaluation, they found that for those students who decided to participate, the experience ‘appeared beneficial for their language learning and development of intercultural competence’ (p. 155).…”

“…Two studies focus on choral singing in relation to either intercultural understanding (Bartolome, 2018) or intercultural competence (Kennedy & Miceli, 2017). Kennedy and Miceli (2017), for example, examined a bilingual choir in Brisbane, Australia, which was developed to help tertiary students learning Italian improve their language proficiency, psychological well-being, intercultural competence and cultural knowledge.…”