|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ALTHOUGH Italian may be considered one of the “smaller” languages on the basis of its enrollment figures, its cultural importance, both past and present, is great. The study of Italian brings one face to face with the vital heritage of Italy's two civilizations—Roman and Italian—which laid the cornerstone for virtually every area of the Western world's sciences, art, music, and literature. The student of Italian encounters Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo, Verdi, and Dante. He also explores Italy's contributions to our modern Western culture in such areas as banking, public health, city planning, political science, and international law.
Not by chance, despite drastic cutbacks in language requirements which have decimated other European languages, Italian alone has demonstrated a steady increase in enrollments. Clearly, a renaissance in Italian is already taking place. The crucial question for those of us who teach Italian is how to ensure its continuation.
The answer lies in understanding that the renaissance in Italian is a function of the relevance of the language to modern American life. Relevance—that criterion which has become the deciding factor for students and academic administrators alike in curriculum decisions, and which, to a large extent, has doomed other languages—is the cause of the steady growth in enrollments in Italian. During the past ten years I have documented this explanation by asking each of my students why they chose to study Italian. The answer: its relevance. Today's serious, sophisticated, and individualistic students are becoming increasingly aware that they must study Italian if they are to obtain a true knowledge of art, music, and literature, to mention only three fundamental areas of our culture which have their roots in the Italian civilization. In addition, students come into contact almost daily with the influence of modern Italy on American literature, theater, and cinema, and on our fashion, automobile, handicraft, and tourism industries.
There are also other factors contributing greatly to the renaissance in Italian, among them the growing awareness and acceptance of ethnicity which began in the last decade, as well as the more recent quest for one's “roots.” These movements have had a dramatic effect on Italian Americans, the nation's largest ethnic group. Emerging, after years of hard work and stoic silence, from under the burden of prejudice historically suffered by many of this country's racial and ethnic minorities, Italian Americans have at last found their place. They have become proud of their ancestry, their heritage, and their contributions to our land and its history. Indeed, America was discovered by an Italian and bears the name of an Italian, and the gracefully arching bridge and the narrow strait marking the entrance to her largest harbor are named after its Italian discoverer, Verrazzano. As he wrote the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson borrowed from Filippo Mazzei, his confidant and neighbor, the phrase which has become the fundamental credo of our nation, “All men are created equal.” On the Declaration of Independence the signature of William Paca, governor of Maryland, apears boldly. Francesco Vigo, who had pioneered the old Northwest Territory with Lewis and Clark, personally selected, financed, and led the army which liberated the entire Northwest Territory from the British. Significant contributions to American life and culture were also made by Meucci, inventor of the telephone; Giannini, founder of the Bank of America; Enrico Fermi, who unlocked atomic energy; and more recently, in the political sphere, by John Sirica and Peter Rodino.
Even such a brief sketch suffices to attest that America is an Italian heritage. No longer ashamed of their Italian descent, young and old Italian Americans now find in it a positive sense of identity epitomized by the title of their leading magazine, I AM . Consequently, hundreds of thousands of Italian Americans feel a strong tie with Italy, the birthplace of their ancestors; Italian American students state that they are studying the language and culture in order to reestablish meaningful, personal contacts with their relatives in Italy.
Other replies to my question asking students why they chose to study Italian reveal the last significant reason for the renaissance in Italian. Widening student horizons in an age in which international travel has become commonplace entice non-Italian American students to visit the cradle of our Western civilization. They, along with those captivated by a brief sojourn in Italy, want to participate in and appreciate Italian life and culture in a way that is possible only if they have mastered the language.
These examples demonstrate that despite the diversity of their reasons, students choose to study Italian because of its relevance to their personal lives. Those who enroll in our courses are intensely motivated. They are in our classes because they want to be, and they have specific goals they seek to accomplish. In response to another question in my survey, the students themselves have defined their objectives: they want to speak Italian, to read Italian, and to learn about Italy.
Having pinpointed the causes for the renaissance in Italian and the goals of the students who study this language, we can deduce two further propositions: (1) rote learning in the classroom will not satisfy the needs of our students; and (2) we must generate interest in Italian in the community outside the classroom, for that fertile field is our sure source of future generations of students. Our task in the classroom is obvious. We must fulfill felicitously and simultaneously both the students' personal objectives in studying Italian and our own pedagogical goals. With a modicum of ingenuity on the part of the educator both goals can be blended happily, to the satisfaction of all concerned. It is not my intent to present a detailed syllabus for Italian, but rather to suggest an approach which can serve as a catalyst in engaging students with the language.
We are uniquely fortunate that students generally want to learn to speak and read Italian as well as to study the country itself. Learning to speak Italian can be combined with study of Italy by creating an Italian environment in the classroom. I use slides taken in Italy to serve as visual material which stimulates descriptive conversation related to the dialogues and grammar of each chapter in our textbook. Similarly, posters obtained from the Ente per il Turismo in major Italian cities also excite verbal and written communication while supplying information on Italy. I vary this descriptive approach with student role-playing to achieve real-life Italian cultural situations related to the vocabulary and grammar under study. This activity produces a highly innovative and demanding use of language. Students are on their own and must use their linguistic resources, for example, to find a bank, cash a check, make a telephone call to Rome, buy a dress, or get a train ticket. Both the descriptive and dramatic methods intensify grammar and vocabulary learning and improve speaking ability while at the same time teaching the students about Italy. Carefully selected reading material from Italian sources provides direct insight into Italy and reinforces knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. When used effectively, these three methods—description, drama, and reading—satisfy the goals of both student and teacher.
Ensuring a renaissance in Italian does not end in the classroom. On the contrary, this is just the first and easiest step. We cannot limit our attention strictly to the highly motivated students who have sought us out as the means to expand their specific interest in such areas as music, theatre, or history. Although these students are our best agents for promoting Italian among their peers who are unaware of the unparalleled cultural heritage and educational opportunities Italian holds, their contacts are limited. Thus we must work actively outside the classroom to instill in the the entire student body an awareness that Italian and its cultural heritage are an indispensible component of liberal education. Annual events such as an Italian fair or book exhibit, for example, can help to demonstrate that Italy has contributed far more to our lives than pizza and spaghetti. Each such activity should be advertised both on campus and in the community through use of newspapers, radio, TV, and posters. Mastering the art of public relations is a crucial part of ensuring the renaissance in Italian.
Ensuring the broader renaissance of which I am speaking depends on awakening the public as a whole to the inestimable value of Italian and its importance to every American. This is not an idle dream. I have watched it become a reality. To achieve this ultimate goal we must involve the community, and especially the enormous Italian American population. The members of this powerful, unified ethnic group want their long-neglected cultural heritage to be recognized and appreciated by all Americans. They also wish to perpetuate their cultural inheritance among their own future generations, and they realize that their rich family heritage will be lost forever in America's melting pot if their children do not learn Italian.
To avoid this situation, Louisiana's Italian Americans and Italianists have developed a rather innovative project. Two years ago a small group of state legislators and educators joined together to preserve Louisiana's unique ethnic heritage, in particular its Italian, French, and Spanish heritages. They drafted a bill which would provide in all public schools a well-articulated, twelve-year language program extending upward from the first through the twelfth grade. The language or languages taught in every school would be determined by the ethnic background of the population in each Louisiana parish (the equivalent of a county). With successful lobbying, the bill passed unanimously through both the House and Senate Subcommittees on Education.
Before the critical vote in the House and Senate, virtually every Louisiana Italian American organization (now joined together in the Italian American Federation of Louisiana) sent petitions and telegrams to their representatives and senators—twenty percent of whom are of Italian descent—urging them to approve the innovative bill which would preserve the state's ethnic heritage through the study of foreign languages. In July 1975, Act 714 passed the House and Senate with only one dissenting vote.
We next turned our attention to local school boards and PTA's, presenting our contention that Italian should be taught in the public schools for the benefit of all children, irrespective of ethnic background. Five school boards in parishes with Italian American populations declared that Italian would be taught in their school systems. Moreover, the demand for Italian was so great in Orleans Parish (the city of New Orleans) that the school system's Director of Foreign Languages decided to offer Italian at one elementary school during the academic year 1976–77, even though Act 714 had not yet been funded. In that single elementary school, 175 children—the majority not of Italian descent—enrolled in Italian with the full support of their parents. None dropped Italian, and the pilot program has been an unqualified success. It is a living testimony to the community's enthusiastic interest in Italian. It has also demonstrated the vital role Italian plays in providing a vastly rich and highly relevant education which cannot be obtained through the study of any other language.
In June 1977, the state legislature appropriated the monies to fund Act 714. As a result, 800 children are now studying Italian in the schools of four Louisiana parishes. Their instructors are six dynamic, young associate teachers from Italy who will continue to serve as itinerant teachers for the next three years while American teachers in each of the schools are preparing to replace them as teachers of Italian. Other schools not offering Italian must do so if it is requested by twenty-five percent of the parents. In Louisiana we have thus achieved our goal. Each year Act 714 will enable hundreds of first-graders to begin the study of Italian and will provide them with continuous education in Italian language and culture through the twelfth grade. University Italian programs throughout the nation can look forward to welcoming these Louisiana students.
In conclusion, the key to ensuring the renaissance in Italian is to capitalize on its extraordinary relevance in American life. Italian is in a unique situation not true of any other modern European language. To ensure continued success, however, individual teachers of Italian must increase their efforts in the classroom, so as to retain the students we have; on the campus and in the community, in order to instill appreciation for the Italian heritage and thereby increase enrollments; and in the chambers of the school boards and state legislatures where support can be generated to further our goals. The renaissance in Italian is indeed here, but it is up to every teacher of Italian to further and preserve it.
Revised version of a paper presented at ADFL Seminar West, 29 June 1977, in San Antonio, Texas. The author is a member of the Department of French and Italian at Tulane University.
© 1978 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
|
|---|
|
|
|
