AIMS

The activity aims at:

giving visibility and enhance the class languages;

exposing children to different linguistic sounds, thus promoting linguistic-cultural awareness;

promoting the inclusion of family cultures, supporting the sense of educational sharing.

LINKS WITH THE CURRICULUM

Curriculum languages ​​(Italian, English, etc.):

development of different types of language skills, related to the learning of vocabulary and grammatical rules, to the awareness of one's linguistic background or to the translation into different languages. History, geography and sciences: the teacher can deepen topics pertaining to the countries, the continents, the faunistic and environmental resources, the cultural areas of origin of the child or parents, in a geographical, historical or bio-ecological perspective.

WHAT TO DO

FIRST STEP

The class invites and hosts foreign parents to tell typical fairy tales from ther countries or regions of origin, or some significant moments from their childhood, in their mother tongue. It is important to host at least one Italian parent, in order to also include Italian culture and, possibly, a regional dialect. The use of images, books, photos and/or DIW is suggested to support children's attention. While parents tell the story in their native language, a native speaker classmate translates for everyone.

SECOND STEP

The teacher guides a collective reflection on the contents of the story and, above all, on the sounds of the language. It is important to provide space for children's questions and curiosity, focusing the discussion about different linguistic aspects:

similarities and differences between languages;

common historical-geographical origin of some languages;

ease or difficulty in pronouncing foreign words / sounds (it is useful to have the class repeat aloud some keywords / stimulants);

difficulty in writing some words or alphabets (it is useful to have foreign words written on the blackboard and / or in the notebook).

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS

The educational path can be enriched and completed through the activity: "Creating a digital story in multiple languages".