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.
---
We now have available for individual purchase each of the feature articles from issue 8 of the journal at a very accessible price and will make the feature articles available from other issues as time goes on. Check our webstore to see what we have at any given time. We will announce and link each of these individually in upcoming blog posts.
The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies is available by subscription. JDLS is a biennial journal, and it is easy for time to slip by and miss the next issue. Subscription will take care of that. Subscribe HERE and never miss a copy. (Publishes typically in December of even-numbered years.)
Also, don't believe Amazon's listing of previous issues of The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies as out of print. It is very much in print and available at the MSI Press webstore. Subscription service available as noted above, and issues 1-6 are on sale for $5 each!
Amazon is selling issues 7 and 8.
For more posts about the JDLS, click HERE.
If you have a post to contribute to the Thursday high-level-language-proficiency topic, we would love to see it. Please send it to editor@msipress.com.
Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter
Follow MSI Press on Twitter, Face Book, and Instagram.
Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start?
in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book?
Contact editor@msipress.com.
Want an author-signed copy of this book?
Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25)
and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.
You can!
Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.
Comments
Post a Comment