Italian (Version 8.4)

The nature of the learners

Children enter the early years of schooling with established communication skills in one or more languages and varying degrees of early literacy capability. For young students, learning typically focuses on their immediate world of family, home, school, friends and neighbourhood. They are learning how to socialise with new people, share with others, and participate in structured routines and activities at school. Typically they have little to no experience of Italian language and culture.

Italian language learning and use

Students use Italian for social interactions such as greetings, asking and answering simple questions, responding to instructions, singing songs, and taking turns in games and simple shared tasks. The focus is on listening to the sounds, shapes and patterns of Italian through activities such as rhymes, songs, clapping and action games. Repetition and recycling help children to identify frequently used words and simple phrases, and to recognise the purpose and intention of simple texts. They identify and use Italian non-verbal communication strategies and experiment with formulaic expressions and one or two-word responses to prompts and cues. Through creative play and action-related talk, children begin to notice that language can behave differently in different situations and that Italian speakers communicate in some ways that are different from their own. Students are encouraged to notice that they are part of a connected world which includes many languages and cultures, and they begin to become aware of themselves as communicators in particular cultural contexts and communities.

Contexts of interaction

Children interact with each other and the teacher, with some access to wider school and community members. Virtual and digital resources provide access to additional Italian language and cultural experiences, connecting learners’ social worlds with those of Italian-speaking children.

Texts and resources

The transition from spoken to written language is scaffolded through shared exploration of simple texts and language features. Children progress from supported comprehension and a small number of high-frequency and personally significant sight words and phrases to more elaborated simple texts which include a context, purpose and audience. They use grapho-phonic, grammatical, cultural and contextual cues to comprehend texts and communicative interactions. Writing skills progress from labelling and copying words, to writing simple texts using familiar vocabulary, and language structures and features. Written texts that students experience include children’s stories, big books, descriptions, recounts and labels.

Features of Italian language use

Students focus on the sounds of the alphabet, in particular the vowel sounds, and ‘c’ (ciao) and ‘ch’ (Chi?), and on intonation patterns and the use of accents. Students are also introduced to nouns and pronouns. They learn simple sentence structure using subject–verb–object order as well as how to form questions. They explore the idea of masculine and feminine gender, how to use singular and plural forms, the negative form non and the placement of adjectives.

Level of support

Students’ learning is highly experiential and activity-related, and is supported by the use of concrete materials and resources, visual supports, gestures and body language. Scaffolding includes modelling, monitoring and moderating by the teacher; provision of multiple and varied sources of input; opportunities for revisiting, recycling and reviewing; and continuous cues, feedback and encouragement.

The role of English

Children are encouraged to use Italian whenever possible. They use English to talk about differences and similarities they notice between Italian, English and other known; about how they feel when they hear or use Italian; and about how they view different languages and the people who speak them. English is used by both the teacher and learners for talking about the language and about learning, and for noticing, questioning and explaining.

The nature of the learners

At this level, children are developing awareness of their social worlds and of their memberships of various groups including the Italian class. They are developing literacy capabilities in English, such as writing in the Roman alphabet, which assists to some degree in learning Italian. They benefit from varied, activity-based learning that builds on their interests and capabilities and makes connections with other areas of learning.

Italian language learning and use

The development of oral proficiency requires rich language input in different modes and from different sources. Children develop active listening skills and respond through action-related talk. They strengthen their comprehension skills, using contextual and grammatical cues as well as phonic and non-verbal cues. The language they encounter is authentic, with modification when necessary, involving familiar vocabulary and simple structures. Children are supported to use the language themselves in familiar contexts and situations, such as exchanging simple ideas and information, negotiating predictable activities and interactions, and participating in shared tasks, performance and play. They continue to build vocabulary which can be adapted for different purposes, and to control simple grammatical forms to communicate in familiar contexts.

Contexts of interaction

The contexts in which learners interact in using and learning Italian are primarily local: the classroom, school, home and community, with some access to wider communities of Italian speakers and resources through virtual and digital technologies.

Texts and resources

Children develop literacy skills and textual knowledge through supported interaction with a range of spoken, written, visual and multimodal texts. Imaginative and interactive texts (such as picture books, stories, puppet plays, songs and games) engage the expressive and cultural dimensions of language. Procedural, informational and descriptive texts (such as negotiated classroom rules, planned activities, and family and class profiles) encourage students to use language to ‘get things done’.

Features of Italian language use

Students experiment with pronunciation and intonation in Italian, noticing similarities and differences with other familiar languages. They focus on structures and grammatical rules such as those relating to the use of possessive pronouns, prepositions and negation. They extend their knowledge of definite and indefinite articles, and of gender and singular/plural forms.

As they encounter Italian language and culture they make comparisons with their own language(s) and culture(s) and consider their own ways of communicating. This leads to exploring concepts of commonality and difference, and of identity, and to thinking about what it means to speak more than one language.

Level of support

Children’s grammatical knowledge and accuracy in spoken and written Italian are developed both through form-focused activities and through opportunities to apply this knowledge in meaningful task activity, as they build their communicative skills, confidence and fluency. Teachers provide models and examples; introduce language, concepts and resources needed to manage and complete tasks; make time for experimentation and drafting; and provide support for self-monitoring and reflection.

The role of English

The use of English, when appropriate, provides support opportunities for discussion and exploration of ideas which help children to build a conceptual frame and metalanguage for talking about language and culture, and about their experiences as learners moving between languages and cultures.