|
About the Presenters
|
|
 Suzanne Branciforte
Study in Italy, Genoa/Siena, Italy
|
|
|
DSuzanne Branciforte has a B.A. from Harvard and an M.A. and Ph.D in Italian from UCLA. A Fulbright scholar, she has taught both at American and Italian universities. In 2000, she founded Study in Italy, a private school of language and culture in Genoa, Italy. She has consulted on Italian language pedagogy from Switzerland to South Africa, and held training classes for teachers of Italian on three continents.
In addition to the best-selling Italian textbook Parliamo italiano!, she is the principal author of Sì, lo so, L’italiano di base (Edumond Le Monnier).
She has given numerous papers at conferences, lectures and webinars devoted to techniques and methods of teaching Italian, integration of video in the classroom, use of advertising in teaching, the language of young people in Italy, the blended approach, and dubbing. An accomplished translator of poetry and prose, her translation of the collection of short stories Partisan Wedding by Renata Viganò was favorably reviewed in The New York Times. Her translation of Tony Harrison’s long poem Polygons came out as a chapbook in 2015. She is also a sommelier, wine educator and wine consultant. |
|
 Elvira G. Di Fabio
Harvard University
|
|
|
Elvira has a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Italian Studies. She was coordinator of the Italian language program in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard, and in 2016 took on the role as Director of the Language Programs in RLL until July 2020. She remains active at Harvard as an Associate of RLL.
For ten years, she directed the Harvard Summer Study Abroad in Vasto, Italy, providing a linguistic and cultural immersion experience in coordination with a number of local institutions. As Director she led and taught in the teacher training program for all Romance language instructors, including new faculty, graduate student teaching fellows, and teaching assistants, with pre-service and in-service coursework, theoretical frameworks and practical applications. In addition, she has conducted many professional development workshops both locally and at national and international conferences. Her current projects include a translation-in-progress of a recent novel by Dacia Maraini, and the coordination of the blogpost “Italian News Clicks”: www.italiannewsclicks.fas.harvard.edu
|
The Poetry in Language Teaching:
Incorporating Authentic Texts of Literature
Tuesday, November 16th at 3:30 PM ET
Suzanne Branciforte
Study in Italy, Genova, Italy
Elvira G. Di Fabio
Harvard University
About the Webinar
As teachers of language and culture, it is our responsibility to teach culture in the target language. Italian literature presents a vast array of texts from which to choose. Indeed, one of the instructor’s biggest problems is selecting accessible, authentic texts that encompass the broad variety of fields and interpretations of the human experience. Moreover, thoughtful presentation of cultural texts should be the basis for a linguistic and cultural reflection that culminates in the student’s ability to produce original idiomatic expression. In this presentation, we propose a practical approach to the selection of authentic cultural texts.
Using Ungaretti’s short masterpiece Soldati, we will illustrate how students can come to know the original work of a major Italian author, understand something about the period in which it was written, familiarize themselves with figures of speech, deepen their appreciation of syntax, and finally, create original expression.
With this presentation, we hope not only to furnish a ready-to-use nugget of Italian culture to incorporate in a lesson, but to supply guidelines for selecting relevant and inspiring cultural texts with a blueprint for their easy implementation in a lesson plan. Because what we teach is not lingua e cultura but lingua è cultura.
(Unità 5, Immagini e parole, page 228)