21 Feb 2020
It’s always refreshing to watch the interactions of children as they are open and willing. This is exactly what we saw when we visited Year 3 and 4 students and their teacher at Yarralumla Primary School.
“C’é, James”, says Antonietta Martinello a native Italian speaker and teacher of the Bi-lingual program as she effortlessly conducts the class in a mix of Italian and English.
Antonietta says that the bilingual classroom opens the children up to multiculturalism and diversity.
When teaching children about customs in Italy they also discuss what happens in Australia and what students from other cultural backgrounds celebrate in their homes.
“Harmony Day and the Multicultural Festival are very strongly represented, and we bring a lot of that into the classroom,” Antonietta said.
“Children are culturally literate and quite accepting of the diversity we have in our community.”
As Antonietta senses a child may need guidance or extra information, she repeats an instruction in English. Once confirmed, it’s back to Italian.
The children discuss the day of the week, the date and the month. Then it’s onto the weather. This is a routine to begin the day.
The day we visited was described as ‘bella’. Indeed, it was a beautiful day. Shortly after the class are learning to tell the time in Italian.
At Yarralumla, children are taught the Australian Curriculum in English and Italian with the Italian program teaching Italian language, reading and comprehension, writing, spelling and speaking. They also learn maths, science: Positive Behaviours for Learning, PE, health, sport, art and music.
Italian and English teachers plan together, teach, and deliver their curricula programs through a team teaching approach.
The children we met are all really interested in Italy, with some students having already visited Italy and others looking forward to an upcoming trip.
Antonietta explains that this interaction ensures that the children benefit from contemporary language use.
The Canberra Multicultural Festival will be held from 21-23 February.
Every two years students attend school in Italy for a week where they fully students participate in all lessons. This gives the students a context for studying Italian and shows them they are more than capable of using their Italian language knowledge in Italy.