American Association of Italian Studies (AAIS) XXXV Annual Conference, University of Colorado, Boulder - March 28, 2015

1. Exploring the Intercomprehension Approach:
The Case of a Multilevel Italian Course
Fabrizio Fornara
Florida State University
Articulating the Italian Curriculum 2: Alternative Approaches to Language Teaching
American Association of Italian Studies Conference, March 28th, 2015

2. Objective of the Presentation
Explore an alternative way to
raise language enrollment by
offering a multilevel Italian course
for Spanish-speaker students.

3. Rationale
How can we boost enrollment in
Italian classes?
Florida
Fast-growing Spanish speaking
population:
3.6 million / 17.9 million 5+ years old
(2013 Census Bureau)
Florida State University
6,125 Hispanic / 39,878 students
(but not everyone is a Spanish speaker)
Design and develop Italian language
courses geared towards native,
heritage, or even fluent speakers of
Spanish.
Italian for Spanish Speakers
Fall 2012 – ITA1120, 13 students
Spring 2013 – ITA1120 & ITA1121, 10+10
Fall 2013 – ITA1120, 20 students
Spring 2014 – 18 students
Fall 2014 – not offered
Spring 2015 – not offered

4. Multilevel Classroom
Differentiated Instruction
Classrooms with students who come
from very different learning
backgrounds, or those in which
students have very different levels of
proficiency.
(Oxford University Press ELT)
Multilevel Instructional Strategies
Instead of creating different lessons
with different objectives for the
different proficiency levels, teachers
teach to the middle and then assign
different, appropriately leveled tasks.
Spanish-speaker students are often
exempted from L2 requirements.
Most of them take only one level of
Italian.
In order to optimize the student-per-
class ratio and consolidate Spanish-
speaker students’ enrollment, we
designed a multilevel Italian for
Spanish Speakers course for students:
• With no prior knowledge of Italian
• Who have already taken a first
level Italian course
• Who are everywhere in between

5. Multilevel Classroom (cont.)
Advantages of multi-level classrooms:
• Students learn at their own pace
• Students learn to work in a group
• Students become independent
learners
• Students develop strong
relationships with their peers
• Students become partners in
learning
Challenges of multi-level classrooms:
• Finding appropriate teaching
resources and material
• Organizing appropriate groupings
within the class
• Determining the individual needs
of each student
• Ensuring that all students are
challenged and interested
• Enforcing L2 only policies when
teacher is occupied and students
are working in small groups or pairs
(EnglishClub)

6. Approach
Mixed intercomprehension and theme-based approach
Intercomprehension Approach
Emphasizes the similarities among
languages (Doyé, 2004) and
accelerates acquisition by
sensitizing learners to the linguistic
bridges that link Italian with Spanish
and English (Donato et al., 2014).
Active – or even passive –
knowledge of Spanish helps
students to easily understand and
use Italian language features.
Theme-based Approach
Helps students make sense of the
content of the course by organizing it
in thematic units.
Real life situations that are meaningful
and interesting to students.

7. Structure of the Course
Face-to-face class with an online component
Four credits course, four weekly meetings / Flipped classroom
Home
Blackboard site of the course:
• Grammar tutorials: VoiceThread
• Online practice: Open
educational resources exercises,
online learning tools (Quizlet,
Duolingo), social networking sites
(Facebook or Twitter)
• Quizzes (Blackboard)
Classroom
• Intercomprehension activities
• Leveled tasks:
• Pairs, small groups, whole-class
• Like-ability / cross-ability groups.
Typical class schedule:
• Warm-up as a whole group
• Leveled tasks, variety of groupings
• Whole class together
Inclusive and collaborative environment

8. Intercomprehension Activities
News – Modeled on the EuRom5
activities (Bonvino et al., 2011):
• Authentic, current, short, related
to Italy
• Title translated in Spanish
• Vocabulary box
• BUT: No grammar explanations
• Questions
• Main sources:
• ANSA
• ItalyNews

9. Intercomprehension Activities (cont.)
Audios and videos – Same structure
as the news; students access a
video or audio recording and
answer a set of questions.
• Authentic linguistic inputs,
snapshots of Italian society and
culture, focus on “an Italian
point of view”
• Short movies, cartoons, movie
clips, ads, recipes, songs.

10. Survey
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
I like to read news
in Italian
I usually read the
news posted online
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
N=38

11. Survey (cont.)
N=38
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
I usually understand
most of the information
The vocabulary box
helps me to better
understand the news
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree

12. Survey (cont.)
N=38
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
I feel I can understand a
great deal of written
Italian
Reading news in Italian
helps me learn Italian
better
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree

13. Modular Structure
Every unit has several modules:
• Two or more lexical modules -
same for both levels
• Two or more grammar modules –
usually different
• Module that includes idiomatic
expressions and cultural notions
– same for both levels
Not rigid blocks, all the information
is integrated in the learning material
and class activities.
In every unit:
• Lexical macro-theme (leisure
activities)
• One or more micro-themes (sports,
hobbies)
• Core grammar module (present
tense: irregular verbs, imperfetto
tense)
• Other grammar modules (temporal
expressions, prepositions, adverbs)
• Idiomatic expressions (asfaltare,
che partitone!) and cultural notions
(Serie A)

14. Assignment and Grading
Thematic units (6) 60% (10% each)
Core grammar module 4%
Other module 2%
Unit final activity 4%
Written compositions (3) 10%
Oral practice (3) 10%
Participation / Preparation 10%
Final exam 10%

15. Grazie!
Fabrizio Fornara
ff11@my.fsu.edu @ffornara
Articulating the Italian Curriculum 2: Alternative Approaches to Language Teaching
American Association of Italian Studies Conference, March 28th, 2015