Intercultural activities in the vocational school for business and tourism “Elsa Morante” prof. Stefano Todesco

Intercultural activities are carried out in our school since more that ten years Our school has a very high percentage of foreign pupils (30%) Some of them were born in Italy or have attended all schools there, but others come to us only a few days after their arrival in Italy and don’t know at all our language and culture In general, even those who speak Italian well don’t understand the language of text-books

Activities for teachers Many teachers who come to us for the first time have never taught to foriegners and need guidance We make a meeting with them to explain some important things: – the teacher must speak slowly and with simple words – the teacher has to write a personalised educativ plan for who has problems in Italian language – foreign pupils can’t be evaluated as if they were Italians!

Activities for pupils There are two kinds of activities for pupils: – teaching of Italian language – reciprocal discover of each other’s culture between Italian and foreign pupils

Language teaching When a foreign pupil arrives, an individual interview is made in order to know him At the beginning of the school year an Italian language test is made for both new and old foreign pupils Italian courses are organised for different levels: A1, A2, B1, B2

A1 and A2 courses are taught in the morning, the pupils leave their class four hours a week because learning the language is urgent for them B1 and B2 courses are taught in the afternoon when there are no lessons, but students don’t want to take part because: – they don’t want additional lessons or can’t return home because there are no buses – they think they already speak very well (but they don’t know the language of text-books!)

Reciprocal knowledge A group is made with Italian, foreigners and handicapped pupils they choose a topic such as food, marriage, the youngs and the school helped by a theatre director, the pupils write a theatre show with tipical dances and songs from different countries and a spoken part

The final spectacle is shown to all students The aim is to meet, accept and integrate different cultures Even during classes, when possible, the teachers invites Italian and foreigner pupils to compare different aspects of their culture

Unresolved problems It is difficult to explain to Italian students that different cultures, expecially those from Africa, are not of less value, just different Migrant pupils from southern Italy think that they have the right to move to the north to find a job, but that foreigners don’t have the right to come to Italy