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Teaching diversity in the Italian classroom

Date: Tuesday 30 June 2020
Host & Organiser: King's College London
Event type: Online conference 

About the conference

How do we incorporate diversity in our Italian courses? Diversity has been defined as the quality of diverse or different cultures within one context, as opposed to monoculture or global monoculture. Diversity involves taking into account the differences between people and groups of people and placing a positive value on those differences. Italy has always been a diverse country, due to its historical vicissitudes and the rich geographical, linguistic, and cultural variety which characterise this relatively young nation. More recently, Italy has become even more diverse thanks to immigration from other countries. Lastly, in Italy the notion of the “other”, to be understood as anything not befitting the traditional values of Italian society, has taken the centre stage in the contemporary cultural discourse. Within the climate of inclusivity promoted by higher education institutions, we, as language educators, will endeavour to incorporate diversity both as a cultural element in our courses and as a series of strategies to ensure that learning takes place for language students of all backgrounds, abilities, and learning styles.  

We will focus on:

  • the theme of the geographical, cultural, linguistic differences within Italy (the teaching varieties in Italian regions (North and South) and the differences in dialects) and in the countries where Italian is spoken
  • curriculum design: introducing diversity in the language class (movies and books of second-generation immigrants in Italy, alternative models of family, “the other" in Italian culture)
  • diversity as in differentiation of learning styles  

Who should attend

The conference is ideally suited to teachers of Italian in secondary, higher and further education.

The Italian conference at King’s College London is a forum for the exchange of ideas, theories and practices, promoting teaching excellence and scholarship in the field of Italian Studies. It is a one-day event for teachers of Italian combining workshops, panel presentations, and networking opportunities.Participants will be awarded a Certificate of Professional Development upon attendance. 

We hope you will enjoy the virtual Italian conference at King's College. 


Contact the conference team

Dr. Elena Borelli, Deputy Team Leader, Modern Language Centre, King's College London

Contact the conference team

Magali Allary, Team Leader for Romance Languages and Linguistics, Modern Language Centre, King's College London

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Our Sponsors

The British Italian Society

BIS

The British-Italian Society, founded in 1941, promotes knowledge and understanding in the UK of Italian culture, including Italy’s history, institutions, way of life, language and wider contribution to civilization.

uTalk

UTALK 368x208

With their global reach of 140+ languages and 20,000+ language learning combinations means uTalk are super-flexible. And with over 25 years in the language multi-media business, have a proven track record.

The Modern Language Centre

Kings 368x208

The Modern Language Centre, King's College London teaches over 26 languages on both short courses and modules, with native speaking teachers providing a culturally rich learning experience.