Updating my Personal Learning Environment…

Hello everyone!

As I said at the end of the first semester, reflecting on your own PLE is really important because it makes you think about the way you learn and by thinking about your learning structures, you can realize if the method you are using is good or if it can be improved and developed.

• Has something changed during the second semester in the organisation of my English learning?
  
  

Definitely yes!!!

I still think that grammar and vocabulary exercises, listening practice, reading texts aloud, doing translations are the basic tools if you want to learn a language. But they’re not enough… This is why I would add and consider other categories for my PLE.
First of all the Web source can be really useful since everyday it gives us new tools that can help us learn a language: not only can we find articles to read, exercises to do, but also it gives us the possibility to communicate with real people who live far from us. This is what we have done until few weeks ago through Skype: speaking with the American students of Dickinson College has been amazing. In a few hours I learnt new words, new expressions and I could practise both my language skills (mainly speaking and listening skills) and my intercultural competence (I found out many interesting aspects of American culture). In this way my English knowledge has improved a lot.
Plus, I now want to dedicate much time to the informal, personal and individual learning: I think that relationships and friendships are the best way to learn a language and I’m sure that the easiest way of improving a language is by doing something amusing and interesting like chatting with foreign friends, listening to music and watching films in English.

My first PLE consisted of a mindmap divided into 4 main groups called HOW, WHERE, WHO and GATHERING INFORMATION. I would keep them as they are, but I would add some subgroups to the ‘Informal Tools’ section: the use of Skype, Facebook and Messenger that give you the chance to keep in touch with your foreign friends from all over the world and tandem meetings in order to practise your English language and compare your culture with that of other people.

REFLECTING ON MY INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

Hi guys!!!

We have already spoken about intercultural competence... Almost two months ago, at the beginning of the second semester, we dealt with the Yoga Form, a form to examine the development of our intercultural communicative competence (ICC).

• What has changed thanks to our exchange?

Well, first of all I have to say that it was not easy to answer to the questionnaires... But all those questions and examples to provide made me reflect a lot on my improvements and I found it very useful.

As far as my language skills are concerned, I think that I made many improvements. In order to do my final project I had the chance to read and write a lot... That's why I feel more fluent and confident with some grammar structures, plus I learned many useful words, such as 'political platform', 'parking lot', 'to run for office', 'stay permit', 'to reckon', 'mind that', 'to trip', 'to get kicked out' (in a soccer match), 'to recruit'.

However, what makes me really happy is the improvement of my listening and oral skills in general! I enjoyed speaking with Allyson and Ugo both because I could test my level of oral English and because of the topics we discussed... And this leads me into the next aspect to consider: the development of my intercultural competence. I learned a lot of new things about American culture: from the most general aspects (daily routine, students' life, educational system) to more complex topics (terrorism, politics, immigration). Besides, I developed my knowledge about my own culture: in order to answer to the questions from the American guys I had to gather information and in this way I discovered and re-considered Italian culture.

So... Everything was really useful and enjoyable... I do hope I'll be able to keep in touch with these new friends of mine and you all!

C U!!!

thinking about the final project...

Hello everyone!!!
This course is nearly finished and now we need to concentrate on our final projects.
I really like the idea of discussing a topic concerning the differences between Italian and American culture...Unfortunately we haven't decided the subject yet.
As a group we are thinking about the following subjects:
1. Religion
2. Sport
3. Death penalty
We agreed on the fact that they are equally interesting...now we are only waiting for Ugo's opinion, and then we'll start working hard on the project!!
We reckon the easier way to communicate between us and Ugo will be skype and e-mails, whilst between the three of us it will be talking face to face.
We will know how to build our project only when we'll know the subject so...the next time u'll find out what it will be!!!
See u!!!

IMMIGRATION

Last semester I attended an interesting course called “Geografia della popolazione” and one of the most interesting subject it was based on was ‘immigration in Italy’. Therefore, thanks to this course I think I have a good knowledge of this issue.

First of all, immigration is still a relatively new phenomenon for Italy (it received the largest flows of immigration during the 1980’s) because it’s a country that in the past had seen mostly emigration.

The current situation regarding immigration is rather difficult to handle, especially illegal immigration… Italy attracts an illegal immigration which is greater than that of other countries not only due to its frontier, which is quite extensive with respect to its total surface area, but also – and primarily – because of its large underground economy. The singular expansion of the sector of domestic and personal services and the diffusion of small business facilitate the growth of an illegal workforce.

Moreover, government policy has never been effective: Italy doesn’t have any proper legislation for immigrants, refugees or asylum-seekers. The Turco-Napolitano Act (1998) and the Bossi-Fini Act (2002) have been the most important attempts to face the problem but not only they were not able to solve the situation but also they have encouraged illegal flows, given that more effort has been given to legalising foreigners already present in Italy, than in encouraging legal flows.

Unfortunately, the situation is not helped by the information provided by the mass-media that often point out only the negative aspects of immigration: all immigrants are criminal; they want to steal everything they can… The result is a great discrimination towards all of them, especially if Albanian and Rumanian.

And what about the legal part of immigrants? I think that they are not protected as they should be: they pay taxes contributing to progress of our country but they don’t have the same rights of Italian citizens.

As I said in my reflection on intercultural competence, there is a current increasing need to be able to deal effectively and appropriately with diversity, whether ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural.
Finally, I really hope that the new government will be able to choose the right options for the eradication of this problem.

If you want to gather much information you can take a look at CARITAS website.

SKYPE AGAIN!

Last Tuesday I spent an enjoyable hour speaking with Alessia, Martina and Allyson about political issues.

We asked Allyson basically two questions:

• Hillary and Obama are the main candidates for elections in the USA. Do you think that the fact of being a woman and a black leader can influence the voters’ choice more than their political platforms?
  

According to Allyson the answer is definitely affirmative. Since the possibility to have a black leader or a woman as president is a great achievement for America, many people, especially women and the black communities, are voting for one of them. Allyson thinks that both of them can really give something more to politics because they can offer different perspectives on a large number of issues and especially Obama is an open-minded person. But do they have enough experience to rule the country?!

• Among the different issues of the political campaign which is the most important and that the Americans care of?
  “The decision of the army withdrawal from Iraq is definitely a central theme in the political campaign.” said Allyson to us.

Then she asked us some questions about the candidates who are running for the new office in Italy and the main differences between Berlusconi’s and Veltroni’s programs. She told us she heard that Berlusconi has a high probability to win again, although most of the Italians she knows do not like him… Well, we have only to wait for Monday night!!

Besides politics, we dealt with other topics such as the organisation of healthcare system in America and the lessons Allyson had in those days. She told us that she watched “Il Caimano”, another interesting movie about Italian politicians!

What else can I add on my reflection?! Yeah, Skype is a wonderful means of communication and our American peers are really nice… Talking about topics such as politics, immigration, healthcare system is very useful to develop our intercultural competence and to improve our linguistic skills!

POLITICS: elections in 2008

Last Tuesday together with Martina, Valentina and Allyson, I took part in an interesting discussion about American and Italian elections. Also this time the topic of the conversation was very difficult but it helped me a lot to understand how the electoral system in Italy and in America works and how different they are.
Allyson explained us that the American electoral system consists of two kinds of vote: the popular and the electoral vote. This latter seems to be much more important than the popular because if a candidate doesn’t win the popular vote but wins the electoral, they are elected… Is this democracy?!
In Italy there are many problems concerning the electoral system too. The main reason is due to the fact that there are a lot of parties and the electors find it very difficult to properly follow every political program… And therefore the result is that most of the people feel confused and uncertain.
Moreover, we discussed about the three videos "Menomale che Silvio c’è", "I’m PD-Si può fare", "Obama Girl" and we all agreed saying that there’s something pathetic in them… We all are rather pessimistic towards our politicians and we think that both electoral systems (American and Italian) should be reformed in order to be more effective.

As far as the cultural topic we will focus on in our final project, I’d like to deal with the situation of women in politics and in everyday life… Is it true that American women only think of their career and independence? What are the opportunities women have in the society they live in? What are their needs? Observing that in Italian society, especially in some jobs, women are still discrimated, I’d like to find out if American women suffer the same condition.

C u on Tuesday, have a good weekend!

YOGA form_intercultural competence

Hello guys!!!

Let's speak about intercultural competence!

The reason why I chose to attend “Foreign Languages” at University was not only the will to improve my English skills but also I liked the idea of getting to know other cultures, travelling or working abroad in international contexts. After many courses based basically on the improvement of English linguistic skills, I’m happy to deal with a concrete exercise, that is the exchange with students in the United States, to develop my intercultural competence. Well, I have to say that it is quite hard to become familiar with any culture you did not grow up into. Even if you spend some time abroad, your idea of the country you are living in will always be influenced either positively or negatively by your own culture.
Reading and reflecting on the document “Developing Intercultural Competence” was really interesting. It made me think of the current increasing need to be able to deal effectively and appropriately with diversity, whether ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural. We can simply think about the difficulties of some immigrants to fit in our society: insensitivity and mistrust are the main attitudes towards them. Is it right?
This is why I’d like to focus our attention on some fundamental traits pointed out by this document: respect, empathy, flexibility, patience, interest, curiosity, openness, motivation, a sense of humour, tolerance for ambiguity and a willingness to suspend judgement. I think we should remember all these words when we come into contact with people of different culture.

The YOGA (Your Objectives, Guidelines, and Assessment) form is definitely a useful tool to critically examine the development of our intercultural communicative competence (ICC).
It helped me to consider aspects I hadn’t previously considered such as the importance of ‘awareness’ (especially of my own culture) and the level of willingness to interact with members of the host culture I demonstrate.
The hardest part about it is the fact that it’s a self-assessment and I found it very difficult to rate myself! Anyway, I think that so far my intercultural competence is not very developed but through our exchange and experiences abroad I hope to become a multicultural specialist!

C u in class!