06.12_SUOLA ELEMENTARE PROBLEMS

06.1 OUR COURSES IN ITALIAN SCHOOLS. Introduction

06.2 Program for our visits to schools in 2002-04

06.3 Proposal for a more ambitious program of visits

06.4 Comments from 18 year olds in a "superiore" in Bolzano

06.5 Comments from a "media" in Capriolo in Bresica

06.6 Comments from a "media" in Lumezzane in Brescia

06.7 Comments from a "medis" in Taio in Trentino

06.8 Comments from teachers who have seen our work

06.9 25 page diary of visits to 5 schools

06.10 Problems of teaching English in "superiore"

06.11 Problems of teaching English in "media"

06.12 Problems of teaching English in "elementare"

06.1 OUR COURSES IN ITALIAN SCHOOLS. Introduction

06.2 Program for our visits to schools in 2002-04

06.3 Proposal for a more ambitious program of visits

06.4 Comments from 18 year olds in a "superiore" in Bolzano

06.5 Comments from a "media" in Capriolo in Bresica

06.6 Comments from a "media" in Lumezzane in Brescia

06.7 Comments from a "medis" in Taio in Trentino

06.8 Comments from teachers who have seen our work

06.9 25 page diary of visits to 5 schools

06.10 Problems of teaching English in "superiore"

06.11 Problems of teaching English in "media"

06.12 Problems of teaching English in "elementare"

06.13 Comments scuola media Brunico

 

Any Elementary school project should....

1. Reconsider the "theories" which are often taken as too self evident.
2. Connected to this, teachers should consider the text books and their grounding notions : Here are some common distinctions and opinions.

•  The distinction of experts between "Acquire - learn". Not helpful if naively conceived.

Effective learning, long term remembering

•  "Children learn their mother tongue without grammar knowledge".

-Yes, but "Absorb" or "acquire" refers to a whole day context. School has to invent SUBSTITUTES! Total. plenty of techniques of repetition, focus, reply stimulus, patterned dialogues.

We suggest a special PHRASE BOOK of carefully selected maximum usefulness and recyclability

Have you finished? have you eaten it?

Why did you.....? What did you.....?.

It's gone. It's here.

Are you com ing ? We're stay ing

A longer example might be of the sort.

" What is Julia doing (rather then the "natural" "What's.)

-Julia starts to jump, and all shout:

"She's jumping".

 

•  " We should offer a "natural" language material"?? .

Media schools go too fast while wasting time on inessentials.

So at Elementary level, lets keep the material very focused, limited but endlessly recycled in varying activities.

•  "We should not use translation".

Translation is OK if done right. If children don't understand they switch off. My daughter when 3-5, frequently and naturally used "translation" to understand. "How do you say rotto in English". Or what does "seek" (hide and seek) mean"?

•  "Music is an idea learning vehicle for children".

Music is fun, but music can (as in supermarket wall paper music) become deadened by overuse. The content of a song should spill over into other activities. So we need:

•  Song/

•  games/

•  movement /

•  drawing /

•  the use of beautiful child made "kits" /

•  wall charts /

•  listening material -

•  nursery rhymes etc /

•  poetry - made and homemade /

•  small extracts of film -

•  funny adverts /

•  use of video camera for their activities /

•  story telling - made and home made /

•  dictionary making /

•  learning by heart - nursery rhymes and songs /

•  singing games / (ie. song + movement of the sort described by Iona Opie.) etc

•  pop songs

•  folk songs

•  "My favourite Italian words in English

•  "My favourite story in Italian.

•  Vocabulary kits in phrases. These are best as felt pieces to place on a "backround felt.

•  coloured phrases to combine with Italian "translations".

•  picture vocabulary sets.

•  pairing games - played in Italian. The child makes pairs of English words and the justifies it in Italian. Bread + Jam "Si mette marmalatta sul pane etc

•  chanting rhymes for main English structures.

•  Ready made plays that are concentrated on a grammar structure - though still in natural fashion. See out grammar plays for past tenses or 2 futures. These avoid all need for "grammar" explanation while still aiding the child with the kind of focus that the mother gives in L1

•  Plays made in Italian around familiar situations. The teacher translates them and later gives the English version for performance.

•  Copying games. As in A and B pairs. A runs with message to B B carries the message back to the teacher. If there's a mistake B runs back to A. If A had forgotten he runs back to the originating teacher.

•  Run to a wall, read and then go and write down what you remember. Good for phrases and vocabulary learning. For young children not writing but repeating. A good variant is you give young children a useful basic phrase: "What are we doing"'? then ask them to run around the play ground for 30 seconds. Collect them together and see if they remember. Playfully confuse them by first making them count to 10!

•  Circle games. A repeats a phrase and calls "F" who has to repeat. These phrases or words can be "read" from a picture chart or from a whisper from the teacher. Variant. Change positive into question. This may seem abstract and difficult but they enjoy the mental gymnastics - which, after all is an essential skill in English. "He is leaving" "Is he leaving"?

•  Relay games. Adaptation of Chinese whispers.

•  Exercises of the puzzle sort. "What is the missing word".

•  Pick it out. An English word is put amongst an Italian sentence.

•  A- word or phrase- a- day. Each week a semantic area for vocabulary or a situation for phrases is chosen as hub for 7 items.

•  objects trouves'. Children bring in objects that are hung on the wall and labelled.

•  Immediate translation of Italian among the kids to help memorise useful English as it arises.

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