This is a graduate-level, 2-credit, 30-hour seminar delivered in Italy in the summer of 2023.
AUR's 1-week summer seminar offers professional development for teachers of Italian. Composed of 30 academic hours, the seminar helps participants improve their teaching strategies through the study of innovative methods of language and culture instruction and creative ways to tackle learning problems.
Upon successful completion, participants will receive 2.0 graduate credits from The American University of Rome. This American institution has been operating in Rome for more than 50 years and is accredited by Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Pre-requisites: A bachelor's degree or 24 university credits in Italian.
Course Professor: Dr. Flavia Laviosa
Flavia Laviosa is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Italian Studies at Wellesley College. In her academic career, she has pursued two paths: one, in Foreign Language Education, stemming from her Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo, and the other in Film Studies resulting from her Master’s degree completed at the University of Edinburg.
Laviosa is an experienced foreign language educator and a certified ACTFL trainer and tester with extensive involvement in designing professional development programs for language instructors in North America and Europe. She has published widely on learning strategies in international journals.
As for her interests in film studies, she has taught courses on European women filmmakers and has published articles in refereed journals and chapters in edited volumes. Laviosa is the founding editor of the book series Trajectories of Italian Cinema and Media (2019-) and of the Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies (2012-) published by Intellect. She has also guest-edited the special issue of Studies in European Cinema ‘Cinematic Journeys of Italian Women Directors’ (2011) and edited the volume Visions of Struggle in Women’s Filmmaking in the Mediterranean (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
Schedule:
Monday-Friday
09:00 - 12:30 Instruction and class activities
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch break (lunch included in course fee)
13:30 - 16:00 Instruction and class activities
Topics:
- Motivating students
- Creativity in the foreign language classroom
- Intercultural competency
- Written and spoken communicative competency
- Italian culture (street art in Italian cities)
Course requirements and materials:
- Attendance
- Active participation during in-class activities
- Completion of oral and written final projects.
All course activities and assignments will be conducted in Italian.
Students will be provided with all course materials. PPT slides will be shared at the end of each class.
Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives in Italian Language Teaching.