An international perspective on teaching italian language and culture

Abstract

The research has demonstrated the contemporary and effective methods of teaching Italian inUkraine. To use a foreign language proficiently means to perceive, understand, and ultimately imitate another culture in an accurate and truthful fashion. Teaching the language in the right manner should both mirror a culture in terms of its language and customs. The educator should depict more average character types who use less elevated language and more physical gestures for self-expression as it is common for Italian culture. It is this combination of accessible language and visual conceptual immediacy that makes it so suitable for the foreign language learning and so invaluable for inter-cultural appreciation at different levels of instructions. Most of the educators teach Italian as a foreign language at the university, but some teach culture as well, which includes both linguistic and extra linguistic competence, or teach at other levels. They provide a coherent and organized overview of contemporary Italian pedagogy, using case studies in the fields of language methodology and language acquisition fromItalyand four major countries where there is a strong tradition of teaching Italian. The main topics include teaching learnable grammar, podcasting and iPod in teaching and learning the Italian language, but at Kiev national universities the priority is given to the communicative approach, life situations. The importance of adopting a didactic translation methodology in the context of the 21 century university reform, building an intercultural identity in a cross-cultural transition, using films at all levels of proficiency, and the history of Italian culture retold by protest songs is being analyzed. This article discusses a series of considerations that underpin the design of a language and culture curriculum at lower level. These reflections are focused on the following areas: environments, text and culture and language, language and culture, authenticity. They are the result of several weeks of intensive online discussions and exchanges between different higher institutions inUkraine.