Teaching and Learning to the Highest Levels of Language Proficiency - Sharings from the Journal of Distinguished Language Proficiency and More (Book Review by Rice & Gasparella)

  


Book review from Issue 8 of the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies --


REVIEW

 

Mastering Italian through Global Debate


Authors: Marie Bertola, Sandra Carletti
Publisher: Georgetown University Press, 2023

Summary

Mastering Italian Through Global Debate (2022) is divided into six chapters, each one focusing on a different topical subject relevant to the current global debate. The first chapter centers on ecology. It includes a reading exercise and an argumentative essay on plastic and its environmental and economic impact. The second chapter addresses the topic of globalism versus localism, with a focus on the Covid-19 pandemic’s effect on both phenomena. In chapter three, the conversation brings attention to the themes of economic inequality, self-sufficiency, and redistribution of wealth. Chapter four takes on immigration, multiculturalism, and diversity, while chapter five addresses the question of security and individual freedom, and the clash between mass surveillance and privacy. Finally, in chapter six, the book discusses STEM and the Arts and Humanities, and the connection among the different disciplines. The book also includes two appendices, which provide directions regarding learning methodologies and assessment and evaluation criteria.

Evaluation

Per the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Scale, a level 4 speaker demonstrates an advanced professional proficiency. This level includes the ability to play an effective role among native speakers in such contexts as conferences, lectures and debates on matters of disagreement to include the ability to advocate a position at length, both formally and in chance encounters, using sophisticated verbal strategies. Through debate, students learn how to make hypotheses, support conclusions with evidence, and deploy rhetoric of persuasion in the target language. Mastering Italian Through Global Debate provides structured activities which can be offered in a synchronous online teaching environment or in individual classrooms. 

Shekhtman et al. (2003) propose that presentational speech will aid students in acquiring professional vocabulary. Each chapter provides excellent opportunities for vocabulary development introduced as collocations. Once students become familiar with the vocabulary, they then prepare for the debate. Each chapter begins with reading assignments which are meant to activate students’ background knowledge. “Background knowledge includes all the experiences that a reader brings to a text: life experiences, educational experiences, knowledge of how texts are organized” (Brown & Brown 2016). The topics proposed in each chapter are rich and stimulating. The authors’ objective is, as a result of learning how to debate, gaining knowledge on multiple global current topics which in turn will increase lexical competencies and active listening skills. 

From a curricular design perspective, the book adopts an Open Architecture Curricula Design (OACD) approach (Campbell 2021). Some of the characteristics of OACD are the use of authentic materials, project/scenario-based instruction, development and use of higher-order thinking skills, and incorporation of collaborative learning, which we see implemented in all sections of the book. The topics chosen by the authors are stimulating and are typically source of debate in Italy among native speakers. Students are exposed to a series of structured activities comprised of reading assignments, listening assignments, and writing assignments which are all geared toward the final debate on the topics covered. Shekhtman et al. (2003) highlight seven tasks that Level 4 professional language users should be able to accomplish: 1) problem-solving discussion, 2) informally interpreting language and culture, 3) interview, 4) briefing, 5) formal presentation, 6) debate, and 7) negotiation. The authors expertly expose students to all seven tasks through the effective use of role playing, authentic materials, and activities aimed at stimulating higher level thinking skills.

In preparation for the final debate, students are asked to gather all their notes on the topic, key words, collocations, and linguistic structures that can aid in the debate. Students are reminded that they are not allowed to read directly from the notes and can only use them as a reference. This is the culmination of all the preparatory work. At the end of each chapter, students are asked to conduct a self-assessment to include how motivated they were to discuss the topic. This self-assessment is an extremely effective and fundamental final stage in determining language progression because it provides opportunities to reflect on one’s own learning process, and it enhances metacognitive skills.

Mastering Italian Through Global Debate is an excellent textbook which can be easily incorporated into an advanced Italian language curriculum because it will aid students and instructors alike in achieving level 4 proficiency.

 

References

Bertola, M. & Carletti, S. (2022). Mastering Italian Through Global Debate. Georgetown University Press.

Campbell, C. (2021). Open Architecture Curricular Design. A fundamental principle of transformative language learning and teaching. In B.L. Leaver, D.E. Davidson, & C. Campbell (Eds.), Transformative language learning and teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Interagency Language Roundtable. (2022). Description of Proficiency Levels. Interagency Language Roundtable Downloaded from https://www.govtilr.org/Skills/ILRscale1.htm.

Shekhtman, B., Lord, N., & Kuznetsova, E. (2003). Complication exercises for raising the oral proficiency level of highly advanced language students. Journal for Distinguished Language Studies 1.

T. Brown, & J. Brown (2016). Teaching Advanced Language Skills Through Global Debate: Theory and Practice. Tony Brown and Jennifer Brown. Georgetown University Press.

 

About The Reviewers

Alessandra Rice is an Italian native speaker and a former Associate Professor of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, CA, where she taught Italian, Diagnostic Assessment and coordinated study abroad programs. She has also been a language consultant for ACTFL for the past ten years. 

Francesca Gasparella is an Italian native speaker who is fluent is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. She holds a BA in Languages, Cultures and Societies of the Middle East and North Africa from the Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy, and an MA in Middle East and North Africa Studies from the University of Strasbourg, France. A passionate linguist, Francesca has experience teaching ESL and Italian at all levels of proficiency.  

See Table of Contents for other reviews.

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