Our Teaching Philosophy & Methods

The methods followed by our teachers are based on communication, participation and student involvement in each phase of the lesson. Students are continuously asked to use and practise their background linguistic knowledge and what they have learnt in class in activities of various types, so that they can assimilate and build on their linguistic skills in an inductive way: the teacher acts as a non intrusive guide for the student, the student is the central protagonist of the processes of learning.

A significant part of our early lessons is dedicated to learning vocabulary, expressions and phrases that are useful in the situations that students will have to cope with from their very first days in Italy. However, from the beginning we will also look at various grammatical structures that we come across during the lessons.

Students are required to complete homework in their own time to consolidate what they have learnt in the lessons.

Materials

Our teachers will provide material to introduce the topics covered in class. We use a wide range of sources covering reading, listening and watching exercises. During the lessons students will encounter written and audio dialogues, stories, written texts, articles from magazines and newspapers, radio programmes, recorded telephone conversations, short videos, film clips, short films, adverts, television programmes, pictures, photos and paintings. In addition students will be given grammar tables and exercises and each level has a specific text book prepared by our teachers to complement the lessons. Bear in mind that our teachers always tailor their lessons to each individual class and may find it appropriate to use specially prepared material rather than following our text books.

Our students are required to bring pens, pencils, notebooks and (if appropriate to the lesson) a dictionary to school as we do not supply these items.

Activities

Activities in class are mainly for pairs or small groups and include role plays, acting out short scenes, board games, small projects, conversation and writing tasks (ranging from formal grammar exercises to creative writing).

Didactic Units

Each didactic unit presents a language topic. The aim of each unit is to guide the student in his or her comprehension, assimilation and practise of a particular argument. The length of a unit varies from one lesson to several days and the topics covered will be continuously revised and studied in greater depth in successive lessons. All of our didactic units consist of the following stages:

• Presentation: the topic is presented, normally in a communicative context, which serves to motivate the students. For example, in a unit that covers street directions, the first exercise of presentation could be a simple brain storming exercise drawing on what students already know or an exercise in forming the questions necessary to ask for particular information. After this students may be given a 'text', which could be written or maybe a dialogue or a video clip or simply a photo or a series of pictures. In this instance it could be a recording of traffic noises. Students then complete a comprehension exercise with a particular goal. Students must be aware that at this stage it is not essential to understand everything. Indeed, they will commonly deal with exercises and situations in which they do not (and do not need to) comprehend all the vocabulary and grammar used. In the presentation stage students are required to focus on key words and general meanings.
• Summary and reflection: this stage involves a 'grammatical reflection' and a more general 'linguistic reflection'. Continuing with the above example, attention may be given to “i verbi servili” or “le preposizioni improprie” or spacial indicators. Using the 'text' as a starting point students try to deduce grammar structures and rules, if necessary under the guidance of the teacher. This inductive method of learning grammar is more effective if, when speaking, teachers use a wide variety of grammar structures, including those that students have not yet studied. In this way students can “absorb” new grammar structures by hearing them in real communicative situations. When using new structures or vocabulary our teachers are careful to use language appropriate to the students’ level. However, they will not over simplify and will use language correctly. By using the same words and terminology each time they speak, they will avoid confusing students.
• Using the language: after the grammatical reflection the teacher introduces a practical activity, usually involving communication, to help students assimilate the rules and structures illustrated by the text. This activity could be a role play, a non grammar communication game etc. In our example the students could be asked to follow a route on a map as it is described by another student or write a dialogue asking for street directions. Grammar exercises, also important for assimilation, will be given as homework so that teacher contact time is used for oral communication as much as possible. Especially in the early stages of language learning, our teachers encourage communication rather than correctness. Students will find that they are rarely corrected in mid sentence. Instead when they have finished speaking, the teacher may indicate their grammar or pronunciation errors. Practising a topic will not be limited to a single lesson but will be continued in other lessons and tasks.

Progress checks

• Tests
  All levels will be given a progress test every other week, covering the topics they have covered in the preceding weeks. Tests last from 30 to 60 minutes and may consist of a spoken exercise, a written essay or an oral or written comprehension on the communicative or cultural arguments recently studied. The tests serve to assess students' ability to use particular structures, linguistic constructions, tenses or idiomatic expressions. Tests usually focus on communication skills in keeping with methods used in class, but occasionally students will be given grammar tests as well.

• Projects
  In two week cycles each class (or two classes with a similar level) work in groups on task-based projects which are partly completed in class and partly in students' own time. The projects are interdisciplinary and give students the chance to broaden their knowledge of the territory and Italian culture in general. Students are encouraged to work with multimedia and use their expressive and artistic as well as linguistic talents. The projects are designed to take into account the language level of the students. Working on a project is in itself an important learning process, in that it motivates students and gives them the satisfaction of presenting their completed work in front of an 'audience' comprised of fellow students and teachers from all our classes. For each project the teacher explains the didactic goal (which is usually self evident). Our students generally find the moment of presentation to be a very rewarding and enjoyable experience, helping to build their confidence in the Italian language and also in more general terms.
  
  It has been demonstrated that this type of project work is a useful tool in language learning. During the entire process of working on the project, the language is used in a situation in which a student's primary concern is not his or her linguistic performance. While they work on a structured project that the students are personally contributing to, they forget they are using a foreign language and remain more concentrated on the specific goal of their work and this switch to concentrating on a non-language related goal encourages a more natural use of Italian: the student tends to use Italian in a way more akin to the mother tongue. This is why we can say that the process is more important than the product.
  
  These projects can be of various type and complexity, depending on the topic, the interests of students and levels of language ability. Some examples of projects may be: a poster with a specific didactic aim such as the use of 'essere' and 'avere', that uses images and written explanations, a short film illustrating a communicative situation such as ordering in a bar or buying a train ticket, a class magazine with articles and news, interviews on a particular topic in the context of a town etc.

• Briefings and class registers
  About twice a week all our teachers have an individual briefing with our teaching coordinator and each month we have a full teaching staff meeting. These briefings and meetings serve as an opportunity for us to:
  
  • discuss any problems with particular levels or with aspects of our programme
  • assess students who may be better placed in a higher or lower level
  • air any difficulties in class dynamics
  • manage morning and afternoon timetables (private lessons and mini groups)
  • determine which teachers are most suitable for which classes
  • discuss and choose didactic material for particular groups and individuals
  • create new material with specific goals according to the needs of individual groups or students
  • decide on disciplinary measures (rarely)
  • identify any prolonged or unexplained absences
  • check the progress of our students (using their test results, class participation records etc.)

For us the class registers are very important as not only do they record the names of our students, lesson dates, and presences and absences, they also document lesson content, the material used and general notes on the class and individual students. Our registers are important for us to look after our students and check their progress over time and are invaluable for us in the eventuality of teacher absences caused by illness or other reasons.