Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Seeking English teachers for a survey

Hello everybody,
My name is Nadia and I'm an Italian-American college graduate pursuing
my certification in Early Childhood Teaching in New Jersey City
University. For one of my research assignments I chose the topic
"Foreign Language Teaching in Europe Primary Schools". I'm interested
in teaching methods and how they're implemented in the curriculum.
If you teach English as a second language or had any experience in
teaching English or anyother foreign language for an Italian primary
classroom and would like to help me complete my research, please answer
the questions below:
In which city and country do you teach?
What is the school's name?
What grade do you teach?
What is the children average age?
How many children do you have in your class?
On what grade in your school are children first introduced to English
as a second language?
Teaching approach (how do you introduce small children to English as a
second language)?
Do you have specific lesson plans (oral presentations, writing
compositions, materials, etc.)?
What degree of parent involvement do you expect?
Do parents respond to your expectations?
How do you test the children (how do you know if the children are
learning)?
How many days a week do you give homework?
What kind of homework do you give?
Do you take the children to English-related field trips?
I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for your help.
Best regards,
Nadia

 wrote in message
news:1151982289.4...@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

I'm not a teacher, just a guy who used to live in NJ and who spent
several years in Italy.
In 2003, the teaching of English was made mandatory in Italian primary
schools.
«In the last reform of the school system, the introduction of the
English language starts from the first year at primary school. After
this, the introduction of a second Community language together with
English was prescribed, (French, German or Spanish) during primary
school (age 7-13). Working with RAI, the program "Divertinglese"
(
http://www.ildivertinglese.rai.it/
) was tested in the 250
pilot-schools subject to supporting the reform of schools system. »
http://makeashorterlink.com/?A68823D5D
It will probably be 7 or 8 years before any results will be seen from
the new system.
My own experience in Italy is that because of a lack of native English
teachers, and a lack of English speakers with whom they can practice,
the English accent of most Italians is not that good.
I have a niece of high-school age who is in her second year of
studying Italian, and who will be going to Italy next week for 10
days. I can guarantee that she won't speak a word of Italian while she
is there. The level of teaching is such that very little work outside
the classroom is demanded of the students, and so they learn very
little of the language.
Joe from Massachusetts

 the English accent of most Italians is not that good.
Absolutely true. That's why I hang around here :-)
Tabhall

During my undergraduate, I studied in Siena, Italy for two months. I
did not stay at the university with American students.  I lived with an
Italian family who only spoke Italian.  Your niece should stay with
only Italian people in order to learn the language.  I am
Italian/American. My parents were born in Asti. They always spoke
Ilanguage at home. Thank god for that!  Now I am teaching my children
how to speak Italian. My husband is from Spain. He is also teaching
them Spanish. It is getting harder because all they want to do is speak
English. Thanks for responding my survey.
Nadia


 even from kindergarden.
Shouldn't it be "we would be able"?
Kiuhnm

 Shouldn't it be "we would be able"?
Good point, let's hope in a mother tongue answer :-)
Your construction is not what I meant, because if I say " if more 
teachers were available, we would be able to start earlier" it means 
that, in fact, there are no teachers and at the moment we can't start 
earlier.
On the contrary, I wanted to say that, in all the schools where there 
were qualified teachers, we started earlier. That really happened in 
many schools in my area. I guess I could have chosen a better way to say 
it.  When it comes to hypothetical sentences, I'm always in trouble.
Tabhall

 it.  When it comes to hypothetical sentences, I'm always in trouble.
My English is still very questionable and I do a lot of mistakes, but 
maybe you could have just said:
"WHERE more teachers with some knowledge of the
language were available, we were able to start from class 1, sometimes
even from kindergarden."
Kiuhnm

Kiuhnm ha scritto:

Unless the writer's Shakespeare, but in sooth I were surprised indeed. 
(Good, eh?)
FB

 even from kindergarden."
We use the German word, kindergarten. At least in the US.
Joe from Massachusetts


It might help interest your children in Italian if they watched
"Martin Mystere" on Raiclick TV, and the corresponding program in
English, "Martin Mystery", which can be seen this week on the Nick
Toons channel, and which is sometimes scheduled on the regular
Nickelodeon channel.. Raiclick requires a broadband connection. The
quality of the video is such that I often record programs to my VCR
for later viewing on my big-screen TV.
"Martin Mystere"
http://www.raiclicktv.it/raiclickpc/secure/folder.srv?id=2076&pagina=1
From a quick check of the schedule, I can see that at least one of the
episodes on Raiclick, "Ritorna dei vampiri" is on Nick Toons this
week, listed as "Return of the Vampire".
http://www.nicktoonsnetwork.com/
Some of the other Raiclick programs in the "Junior" category might
also be of interest.
Joe from Massachusetts

Thanks for the information. My children truly enjoy watching it. In
fact I will let my Italian/American mothers about this site. In the
United States, it is very hard to get cartoons in Italian. There are a
lot of Spanish cartoons. Thanks again.


 wrote in message
news:1152673433.4...@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

This is another site which might be interesting for kids. A lot of it
is free. For example, you can print out a picture of an airplane or a
car, along with a list of Italian words, and label the parts of the
airplane or the car.
I tried to get my niece interested in this, but no such luck.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/languages/italian/Aisfor.shtml
Joe from Massachusetts