"A beautiful thing in and of itself": centering Italian American and student identities in the Italian language classroom
Creators: name: Fusco, Raffaella
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2022

description: Historically, languages have been taught through a series of traditional practices (e.g. heavy focus on vocabulary, grammar, scripted dialogues, mini glimpses of the target culture, and more) and language teachers have been known to rely heavily on textbooks, which usually stress vocabulary and grammar exercises (Glynn &amp; Wassell, 2018). These kinds of traditional practices establish a teacher-centered classroom environment, in which learners have few opportunities to use language in meaningful and authentic ways. Similarly, traditional approaches have focused solely on the standard variety of the target language. Italian language pedagogy, in particular, has traditionally centered the target dominant standard Italian language and culture in the classroom, and it has done so without centering the multiple identities and cultures of Italian speakers or learners. Scholars within the field of Italian language pedagogy, who have written at length about how to move in new pedagogical directions (Occhipinti, 2008), have experimented with teaching Italian in original ways, such as through the arts (theater (e.g. Savoia, 2000), music (e.g. Serra, 2011)); technological tools for teaching Italian (chat rooms (e.g. Tudini, 2007), using clickers (e.g. Garatti, 2013)); using authentic materials to teach Italian (film (e.g. Tognozzi, 2010); business letters; postage stamps (e.g. Nuessel &amp; Cicogna, 1992)) and the different modalities (such as reading (e.g. Aski, 2000); translation (Petrocchi, 2014), recordings (e.g. Means, 2014); content-based instruction (e.g. Rodgers, 2014); and blended language learning (e.g. Fabbian, Zanotti Carney &amp; Grgurović, 2017). Although this research on Italian language pedagogy examines new ways of teaching the language, it shows that the focus in an Italian language classroom predominately rests on the target language and culture. Of course, Italian language pedagogy must support the development of Italian language proficiency, but this does not have to occur at the cost of marginalizing the lived experiences of Italian speakers nor its students’ existing linguistic and cultural repertoires. This dissertation represents an academic semester-long (15 week) qualitative research study at a public higher education institution in the Northeastern region of the United States that examines the impact of an identity-based pedagogical intervention focused on the Italian American experience with the goal of identifying innovative culturally sustaining pedagogical practices (Paris &amp; Alim, 2017) specifically suited for the Italian language classroom. This study asks how an Italian language teacher can create, through a pedagogical intervention focused on the Italian American experience, a community of practice in which students’ identities, experiences, and language practices are affirmed and centered in classroom instruction. The sub-questions that emerge from this essential research question are: 1) How does centering Italian American and students’ identities support language and culture learning? 2a) What identities become salient to learners? 2b) How are students’ identities negotiated through language learning? 3) How does curriculum focused on Italian American and learner participant identities impact their investments in Italian language learning? The participants involved in this study are university students in an elementary Italian language course. Data contributed by twelve university students include surveys, interviews, coursework, and class observations. Analysis of the findings reveal that centering participant and Italian American identities in the language classroom fosters empathy in the classroom community, supports students’ understanding of identities, increases students’ comfort with speaking the language, and helps learners to negotiate more nuanced, hybrid and multiple identities through social interactions. This study makes a major contribution to the field of Italian language pedagogy and learning in that it focuses on the impact of centering participant and Italian American identities in an Italian language classroom and identifies new culturally sustainable pedagogical practices specifically suited for the Italian language classroom.