About

About the Italian Virtual Class

The innovation of the IVC method is that it teaches a university-level introductory course on Italian culture, using primarily the disciplines of history, art history, classical studies, and literature, along with music, film, and cultural anthropology, while also guiding students as they inductively co-construct the carefully designed language learning sequences embedded within the chapters’ thematically continuous texts.

The IVC strategy is unprecedented among first year language textbooks available on the US market today, in that the cultural content is not random or simplified, but instead, remains a structured thematic sequence of university-level materials.

The basic premise of the Italian Virtual Class, Chiavi di Lettura [refered to as I.V.C. ] method is to allow Italians to describe Italy and Italian culture and to bring their perspectives to the classroom, via web technology, culturally intact, and without allowances and simplifications to accommodate the non-native learner. The digital audio-visual component of the project is integrated within a selected carefully designed anthology presented to foreign students so that they may learn the language and culture in an authentic and natural manner. The global job market increasingly demands that our learners put their language skills to use in a real-world setting. Therefore student success hinges upon competent exposure to the economic, social, cultural, and political fabric of an increasingly global community, acquired through an integrated, culturally contextualized language-study, what we call the “keys to understanding”.

Technology here becomes an advanced academic medium, which facilitates these objectives through the simulation of an Italian “virtual” class, thus the name of the project. Students actively engage in technologically enhanced, advanced cultural explorations where the emphasis is primarily on cultural acquisition. However, a well-organized and externally tested second language learning methodology, which carefully sustains the cultural readings, results in rapid language acquisition.

Traditional first year language teaching methods combine cultural topics, which generally have no common thematic thread, with a basic grammar acquisition sequence, thereby inevitably sacrificing culture to language. The innovation of the I.V.C. method is that it teaches a university-level introductory course on Italian culture, using primarily the disciplines of history, art history, classical studies, and literature, along with music, film, and cultural anthropology, while also guiding students as they inductively co-construct the carefully designed language learning sequences embedded within the chapters’ thematically continuous texts. The I.V.C. strategy is unprecedented among first year language textbooks available on the United States market today, in that the cultural content is not random or simplified, but instead, remains a structured thematic sequence of university-level materials.

The I.V.C. is a different and perhaps unique teaching method that utilizes inductive constructivist teaching strategies, and the combination of online audio/visual materials with an E-Book interdisciplinary text. The objective is to teach students how to identify grammatical structures in authentic verbal and written output, and how to interpret the cultural information embedded within these structures. This method facilitates students’ role as actively engaged learners, co-participants in the learning process, from the very start.

Furthermore, E-learning, or distance learning opportunities, allow us to offer on a weekly basis. through video podcasts, extensive and fundamental distance training and assistance to participating faculty teaching at universities in other states or countries. In essence, teaching teachers how to facilitate the co-learning of Italian culture and language within their classes. Annual workshops conducted virtually or in person allow the I.V.C. instructors to enrich their professional experience and share in the understanding of their discipline.

A meaningful use of web technology has allowed the I.V.C. project to become an active forum for students around the world in which to share their experience of learning, and a community for the instructors in which to discuss new ideas and experience innovative ways of teaching.

If you are interested in learning more about the innovative and exciting teaching and learning opportunity please contact the director of the I.V.C. Chiavi di Lettura project: Dr. Judy Raggi Moore at: langjrm@emory.edu