The Teaching of Italian Dialects and Dialect Literature

“…Vários pesquisadores (DANESI, 1976;HALLER, 1980;REPETTI, 1995) concordam sobre a posição central que os dialetos deveriam ter em qualquer curso de italiano. Siegel (1999Siegel ( , 2003 identifica três formas para o tratamento do dialeto em sala de aula: (1) programas instrumentais, em que o dialeto é a língua de instrução para alfabetização e ensino de conteúdos; (2) programas de acomodação, nos quais os alunos podem usar o dialeto, mas ele não é nem a língua de instrução, nem o foco dos estudos;…”

Section: Pesquisas Sobre Italiano Lh No Mundounclassified

Abrindo caminhos para o italiano língua de herança no Brasil: a formação de professores na perspectiva pós-método

Corrias¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This case-study explores the particularities of the educational process of a teacher of Italian as Heritage Language (HL), during the phases of planning, elaboration of teaching materials and realization of a course of Italian HL in Pedrinhas Paulista, (SP), Brazil, an ex-Italian colony founded in 1952. The teacher education process lasted 15 months and the data-collecting instruments were: audio recordings of the meetings with the teacherstudent, interactions through the messaging app WhatsApp, questionnaires, field notes, meetings and interviews with inhabitants and city managers. From a theoretical point of view, we adopted a broad definition of HL speakers, which includes not only speakers linguistically proficient and with a family background, but also those with no family background who feels an affiliation to the language and to the culture of the HL speaking community. The studies in that field indicate that the language policies in favor of the HLs are insufficient to maintain them alive, and that a HL should not be taught as a foreign language. The findings of this study suggest that Italian as HL teacher education has to consider, especially, two topics that create difficulties both in preparing the teaching material and in classroom teaching: (a) the relation between standard language and dialects and (b) the heterogeneity of the linguistic and cultural knowledge within the HL learners'. These issues have been considered through the incorporation of post-method pedagogy, which makes clear the necessity to look for external factors outside the classroom, and to consider social, political and historical aspects related to immigration and to family and institutional language policies. We analyzed in details the context of teacher education process, in a critical manner consistent with the principle of Particularity, adopting as a guide the modular model KARDS. In that model, the keyelements for the understanding of teacher education process were the teacher professional and personal knowledge, the learners' motivations and needs, the teacher self-observation and the teacher classroom work. The realization of the two others principles of postmethod theory, practicality and possibility, revealed the importance (a) of a teacher educator stance that gives to the future teacher liberty to express his/her dilemmas and to act and innovate; and (b) of the community participation in the developing of teacher and learners' autonomy in the quest for solutions that can face the lack of support by local institutions and entities. Although institutional deficiency spurs the teachers to look for didactic freedom; on the other side it can limit the delivering of teacher education courses in the HL and its teaching. Finally, the findings indicate that the construction of communities of practice and communities of inquiry are essential to face the language power relations, to transform the local reality, on a personal and social level.Keywords: Immigration communities. Italian as a heritage language. Pedrinhas Paulista. P...

show abstract

Heritage nation vs heritage language: Towards a more nuanced rhetoric of ‘heritage’ in Italian language pedagogy

Tortora

2014

Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Language programs in the US frequently invoke the notion of heritage in order to spark student interest in language learning. The idea is that acquisition of a particular language can connect a student to their past in ways that can empower them and give them a richer appreciation of their own ethnic background. This article addresses this ‘appeal to heritage’ approach to the promotion of language learning, in relation to Italian. I discuss the disconnect between the language of the classroom on the one hand and true Italian-American linguistic heritage on the other. My purpose is to facilitate an informed discussion of linguistic reality, which is that many members of the Italian diaspora descend from ancestors who were monolingual dialettofoni. I argue that the facts of linguistic diversity in Italy and dialect heritage in the US should be central to any discourse which aims to promote the learning of Italian as a gateway to our students’ pasts. While there is no question that knowledge of Standard Italian gives access to Italy, which in turn can give access to the Italian-American student’s heritage culture(s), it is necessary to formulate a more precise understanding of the link between ‘knowledge of Italian’ on the one hand, and ‘Italian heritage’ on the other – a link which is much less direct than is often suggested.

show abstract

The Teaching of Italian Dialects and Dialect Literature

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Teaching about the Other Italian Languages: Dialectology in the Italian Curriculum

Teaching about the Other Italian Languages: Dialectology in the Italian Curriculum

Abrindo caminhos para o italiano língua de herança no Brasil: a formação de professores na perspectiva pós-método

Heritage nation vs heritage language: Towards a more nuanced rhetoric of ‘heritage’ in Italian language pedagogy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About