Insegnare la lingua e la cultura Italiana tramite un approccio interculturale

Abstract

As time goes by, Maltese schools are becoming more multicultural: intercultural education does not limit itself to transmitting notions about multiculturalism, but to give every learner the possibility to develop intercultural competence, appreciating his/her country’s culture within a Mediterranean, European and global context. Thus, in language learning, learners are encouraged to develop the ability to understand diversity better by comparing one’s own culture to that in which the target language is immersed. An intercultural approach can be used in different classrooms since it has transversal and interdisciplinary characteristics. However, in order to use it in class, teachers must understand what intercultural competence entails while reflecting on their own intercultural experiences. In this dissertation, by using a questionnaire similar to that used in the research carried in seven other countries, distributed to all Italian language teachers in state schools, I investigated how Italian culture features in the Italian classroom. Apart from comparing my findings with those of other countries, it results that although teachers of Italian in Malta declare that they are in favour of promoting the acquisition of intercultural communication skills, actually this occurs occasionaly. They define the teaching of culture, to which little amount of time is devoted, mainly in terms of the transmission of cultural information, not in terms of promoting the acquisition of intercultural skills and attitudes. After analysing the data of the questionnaire and taking into consideration suggestions from teachers, action research was carried out with a Year 7 (11 year-olds) class. A textbook introducing various cultural aspects of both Italy and Malta was created and was used to deliver lessons. Co-operative learning was used and activities that promote the element of fun and discovery were used. Focus was set on reading abilities and evaluation was done through games. Students were asked to give feedback, in order to enable them to play an active role and keep the approach as student-centred as possible, gaining more awareness of their own culture and connecting it to the target language and its culture. The integration of a critical pedagogy with theories based on intercultural skills allowed me to review and reconceptualise my role as an educator making me aware that a syllabus can be changed and questioned through simple techniques, making students aware of the implicit values and meanings in the material they are using.