A DINO BUZZATI CHRISTMAS TALE IN TEACHING ITALIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

L’articolo presenta un racconto di Natale di Dino Buzzati come materiale didattico per l’insegnamento della lingua e cultura italiana a livello universitario oppure ai livelli B1-B2 (secondo il QCER). Si tratta della storiella Troppo Natale, pubblicata per la prima volta il 25 dicembre 1959 sul Corriere della Sera. È un racconto che, mescolando le caratteristiche di una favola e con quelle di un articolo giornalistico, si occupa del Natale di un tempo e di quello attuale. Ambientata nel periodo del boom economico italiano degli anni Sessanta del secolo scorso, la storia parla del vero spirito natalizio che si è perso nell’attuale società dei consumi. Rispettando le tre fasi della percezione, la fase di globalità, di analisi e di sintesi, precedute dalla fase introduttiva di motivazione, l’articolo offre alcune proposte per l’utilizzo di questa storia buzzatiana come spunto per l’insegnamento della grammatica e del lessico della lingua italiana nonché per lo sviluppo delle abilità linguistiche ricettive e produttive, ossia delle abilità di comprendere, parlare, leggere e scrivere, insieme allo sviluppo del senso critico.Članak prikazuje jednu od božićnih priča Dina Buzzatija kao didaktičku građu za podučavanje talijanskog jezika i kulture na sveučilišnoj razini ili na višim razinama srednjoškolskog obrazovanja (razina B1-B2 prema ZEROJ-u). Radi se o priči Troppo Natale koja je prvi puta bila objavljena 25. prosinca 1959. godine u Corriere della Sera, a koja na originalan način, koristeći formu basne i formu novinskog članka, progovara o Božiću nekad i danas. Smještena u vrijeme talijanskog ekonomskog booma 60-ih godina 20. stoljeća progovara o pravom duhu Božića koji se izgubio u današnjem potrošačkom društvu. Poštujući tri faze percepcije, fazu globalnosti, analize i sinteze zajedno s uvodnom fazom motivacije članak nudi neke mogućnosti za primjenu ove priče u svrhu učenja gramatike i leksika talijanskog jezika kao i razvijanje receptivnih i produktivnih jezičnih vještina, tj. vještina razumijevanja, govorenja i pisanja te sposobnosti kritičkog razmišljanja.The paper presents one of Dino Buzzati’s Christmas stories as didactic material for teaching Italian language and culture at the university level and at the upper levels of secondary school education (levels B1-B2). It is the story Troppo Natale, which was published for the first time on the 25th of December 1959 in Corriere della Sera and in which the author, in an original way, uses the form of a fable and the form of a newspaper article in speaking about both a historical and contemporary Christmas. Situated in the period of the Italian economic boom of the 1960s, it talks about the true spirit of Christmas that has been lost in today’s consumerist society. Following the theory of the three phases of perception, the phases of globality, analysis and synthesis, together with the introductory phase of motivation, the article offers some possibilities for the exploration of this Christmas tale for the purpose of learning Italian grammar and vocabulary, as well as the development of the language skills of comprehension, writing, speaking and critical thinking

Le otto montagne: Teaching How to Read a Novel and Keep a Reading Journal in Italian as a Foreign Language

Il presente contributo offre una proposta didattica che mira ad educare gli studenti universitari alla lettura e alla comprensione di un romanzo contemporaneo in lingua italiana; intende, inoltre, insegnare loro a scrivere un diario di lettura. L’unità didattica comprende le fasi di globalità, di analisi e di sintesi, precedute da una fase introduttiva di motivazione. Vengono lette le prime pagine del romanzo Le otto montagne di Paolo Cognetti al fine di stimolare e motivare gli studenti a leggere testi di letteratura italiana e a riconoscere questo compito come un modo piacevole per studiare la lingua e la cultura italiana. Con il diario di lettura si mira a sviluppare la produzione scritta, cercando di coltivare creatività ed immaginazione.The present paper aims to designs a didactic proposal for teaching university students how to read and understand contemporary Italian novels and how to keep a reading journal. During this lecture, students read the first few pages of Paolo Cognetti’s novel Le otto montagne (The Eight Mountains) to encourage and motivate them to read the entire novel so that they would ultimately see this task not only as an enjoyable way of learning the Italian language and culture but also as an enriching personal experience. This particular novel has the potential to engage students in reading because of the themes that are very close to young people and also because of the setting and the emotional charge it conveys. The purpose of keeping a reading journal is to improve students’ writing skills and to provide them with a space to express their creativity and imagination. Even though this experience is an opportunity to foster the students’ autonomy, we believe that the student’s first encounter with the book and the reading journal should be guided by the lecturer to lower the affective filter and consequently increase the students’ motivation and self-confidence

Students’ Metacognitive Awareness about Listening in Foreign Language Lessons

U radu se razmatra slušanje kao vještina učenja stranoga jezika, u ovom slučaju na preddiplomskom studiju Talijanskoga jezika. To je vještina kojoj se često ne pridaje dovoljno pozornosti, a s ostale tri vještine (čitanje, pisanje i govorenje) put je k uspješnom učenju stranoga jezika. Cilj rada dobiti je uvid u metakognitivnu svjesnost studenata o njihovoj metodi slušanja stranog jezika na jezičnim vježbama talijanskog jezika. Istraživanje je provedeno prema predlošku upitnika MALQ (Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire) koji su predložili Vandergrift i Goh (2012), uz dva dodatna otvorena pitanja. Prema rezultatima upitnika studenti, s jedne strane, imaju pozitivan stav prema slušanju i prvi je dojam da su uspješni slušatelji. S druge strane, analiza njihovih odgovora, a posebno otvorenih pitanja, otkriva kako ne pokazuju dobro vladanje strategijama koje su potrebne za uspješno slušanje. Zaključujemo da je ovakav upitnik vrlo koristan alat u osvješćivanju problema i promišljanju o strategijama slušanja, a nastavnikova je uloga pomoći studentima svjesno razvijati strategije, kao put postizanju samostalnosti u njihovoj primjeni.The paper deals with listening as a skill in foreign language learning; in this case, on a bachelor degree of the Italian language studies. It is a skill that has often been neglected, while being a path to successful foreign language learning, together with other three skills. The objective of the paper is to get an insight into the students’ awareness about their methods of listening at the Italian language practice classes. The research was conducted according to the MALQ questionnaire (Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire) along with the additional two open-ended questions. The results show, on one hand, a positive attitude of the students towards listening and the first impression of them being successful listeners. On the other hand, however, the analysis, in particular of the open-ended questions, reveals that they do not regulate well the strategies necessary for the successful listening. We conclude that such a questionnaire is a useful tool in becoming aware of the problem and in thinking about the listening strategies, where the role of the teacher is to help students consciously develop strategies and subsequently become independent in their implementation

The grammatical variations in the Italian language students with Croatian as the mother tongue.

Ovim se radom prikazuju poteškoće s kojima se učenici osnovnih škola susreću tijekom učenja talijanskog jezika (L2 ili LS), prvenstveno odstupanja u gramatičkim strukturama tijekom pisane i govorne proizvodnje uzrokovane interferencijom hrvatskoga i talijanskoga jezika. Rad će pokazati različite vrste negativnoga prijenosa iz hrvatskoga kao materinskoga jezika u talijanski, uključujući i neka razvojna odstupanja, koja se odnose na suznačne riječi: članove, zamjenice, prijedloge, ali i dvjema vrstama samoznačnih: pridjevima te glagolima, i to povratnima te glagolskim vremenima perfektom i imperfektom. Osim navođenja i raščlanjivanja primjera čestih odstupanja, u radu se nude i načini kako se redovitim uvježbavanjem u situacijskim kontekstima s pažljivo odabranim temama i nekim nastavnim pristupima može učenicima talijanskoga pomoći da ovladaju ispravnim oblicima.This paper sets out to present the difficulties encountered by Croatian elementary school students in the process of learning Italian (L2 or LS). These are mostly deviations in grammatical structures during oral and written production caused by the transfer from the mother tongue, Croatian, into Italian. Consequently, the paper shows different types of negative transfer including some developmental deviations referring not only to function words, such as articles, pronouns, prepositions, but also to two types of content words: adjectives and verbs, in particular transitive verbs and tenses (perfekt and imperfekt). Along with listing and analyzing examples of common deviations, the paper suggests that by regular practice in situational contexts with carefully selected topics and using certain teaching methods learners can be assisted to master the correct forms

Scripta in honorem Igor Fisković: zbornik povodom sedamdesetog rođendana

The International Research Centre for Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages prepared a Festschrift in honour of one of its founders, Igor Fisković on the occassion of his 70th birthday. The Festschrift  includes works addressing the periods that Igor Fisković has dealt with most, thus reflecting the diversity of his interests, ranging from Late Antiquity to contemporary art, with key emphasis on the Late Middle Ages and early modernity. Due to the diversity and the broad period of time the texts are covering, they have been arranged more or less chronologically. The works focus mainly on the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, Fisković’s forte and the topic of some of his best writings. There are also several texts addressing the baroque period, which was not one of the honouree’s interests, but they were written by some of his closest friends and members of the generation of his former students who have had prestigious careers. (from the Foreword)Zbornik je pripredio Međunarodni istraživački centar za kasnu antiku i srednji vijek povodom sedamdesetog rođendana jednog od svojih osnivača Igora Fiskovića. Zbornik obuhvaća radove koje pokrivaju razdoblja kojima se Igor Fisković ponajviše bavio, reflektirajući raznolikost njegovih interesa, od početne kasne antike i suvremene umjetnosti, do ključnoga naglaska na kasnom srednjem vijeku i početku modernog doba. Zbog te raznolikosti i širokog vremenskog razdoblja koje pokrivaju, radovi su poredani manje-više kronološki. Ističe se brojem radova upravo kasnosrednjovjekovno doba i početci modernoga, forte u kojem je Igor Fisković dao svoje ponajbolje radove. Uz njih je i više priloga koji pokrivaju razdoblje baroka, kojim se slavljenik nije bavio, no koji su iz pera njegovih najbliskijih prijatelja i one generacije njegovih bivših studenata koji su danas ostvarili ugledne karijere. (iz Predgovora