29.4545, Review: Italian; Applied Linguistics: Renzi (2017)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-29-4545. Thu Nov 15 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.4545, Review: Italian; Applied Linguistics: Renzi (2017)

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Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2018 17:36:26
From: Ivan Lombardi [ivan at u-fukui.ac.jp]
Subject: A Guide to Italian Language and Culture for English-Speaking Learners of Italian

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/29/29-1045.html

EDITOR: Barbara Gabriella Renzi
TITLE: A Guide to Italian Language and Culture for English-Speaking Learners of Italian
SUBTITLE: La Dolce Italia
PUBLISHER: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
YEAR: 2017

REVIEWER: Ivan Lombardi

SUMMARY

According to the introduction to A Guide to Italian Language and Culture for
English-Speaking Learners of Italian: La Dolce Italia (Cambridge Scholars,
2017), editor Barbara Gabriella Renzi identifies her audience as adult
learners who are studying Italian by themselves out of interest in Italian
culture. In further detail, she targets tourists who plan to travel to Italy
to taste the local cuisine, explore lesser-known areas of the country,
experience local customs, and participate in musical events. While not stated
in the Introduction, the title hints at speakers of English being the main
audience. Level-wise, Renzi ambitiously targets the wide range of A1-A2, B1,
and B2 learners. The textbook allegedly has its main strength in its
recordings, which feature a variety of Italian accents. These recordings,
however, were not made available for review. 

Renzi’s textbook is divided into two parts. Part 1 (Chapters 1-20) covers a
number of basic communicative acts and common situations, as well as a few
grammar points. Part 2 (Chapters A-P) focuses on learning and discussing a
variety of cultural topics: Italian areas and their history, local culture and
food, Italian classical literature, and the biographies of remarkable Italian
women. The textbook ends with a self-introduction of the author and her
family, and no end matter (glossary, index, or other study aids).

For the sake of space, we will review here a subset of the 33 chapters of the
textbook (Part 1, Chapters 1, 5, 10, 15, 20; Part 2, Chapters A, E, L, P). In
the end, we will provide a more comprehensive evaluation.

Chapter 1 opens with a bilingual statement of its goals: “you will learn to
say your name, the alphabet and the numbers” (p. 4). The opening dialog (text
1) is instead given in Italian only: “Mi chiamo Sirio. Ho qualche mese.
Guarda, un piede della mamma! Tu come ti chiami?” “Io mi chiamo Barbara!” (“My
name is Sirio. I am a few months old. Look, mom’s foot! What’s your name?” “My
name is Barbara”). A photo of Sirio and Barbara’s foot is given for context,
although vocabulary that is not a target of this chapter, like “qualche” (a
few), “mese” (month), “guarda!” (look!) is not explained nor translated. This
text cues eight exercises on numbers, although no number is introduced in the
text itself. Exercises are nicely color-coded: ‘listen and repeat’ in green
and ‘read aloud’ in red; their sequence gets the student to practice listening
and reading numbers up to the tens of thousands. Text 2 introduces all the
different ways for telling time, and is followed by two ‘read aloud’
exercises. Text 3 focuses on introducing oneself, spelling, and the Italian
alphabet. One of the three exercises is framed as a pair activity, although
this kind of exercises does not usually fit the paradigm of a self-study
textbook. Text 4 is a collection of greetings, which are not practiced
afterwards.

In Chapter 5 “you will learn to buy fruit and vegetables at the market and the
relative vocabulary. You will also learn the use of the gerundio tense”.
Indeed, the situations (dialogs and explanatory texts) take place at a typical
local market. Unlike Chapter 1, all dialogs and texts are translated, and
bilingual lists of market goods ranging from common to really specific items
like Tropea onions and zucchini flowers are scattered throughout the chapter.
Chapter 5 also has grammar notes, color-coded in blue, explaining about the
present tense of the verb ‘to have’, indefinite pronouns and adjectives, and
the gerund tense. At the end of the chapter, the reader is prompted to use the
new vocabulary actively to write a recipe and a situational dialog.

In Chapter 10 students learn how to describe their daily routine and how to
tell the time, with an additional focus on grammar – common verbs like “fare”
(to do) and “mangiare” (to eat) in the first and third person, and common
prepositions like “dentro” (in) and “fuori” (out). ‘Sirio’s day’, the opening
text, is given in Italian only, and followed by comprehension questions and a
bilingual grammar explanation on how to ask for and tell the time in Italian,
as well as the simple present conjugation of regular Italian verbs. Text 2
‘Sirio’s day in summer in the mountains’ is given in Italian only, and cues
more verb conjugations and the study of common prepositions. Texts 3 and 4
introduce other recurring characters and their daily routine, followed by
comprehension questions.

“People go to Italy to eat good food and drink good wine as well, so we think
it is necessary to insist on the food” (p. 163) is the opening statement of
Chapter 15, in which readers learn how to order food and drinks at a
traditional “bar” (café). Not surprisingly, all dialogs and situational texts
take place at a café at lunch time or aperitivo time, providing insights into
both the traditional and modern Italian food culture. No new grammar is
introduced, but rather new vocabulary for specific ‘bar food’, such as
“tramezzino” (sandwich) and “succo di albicocca” (apricot juice), and reviews
from previous chapters. In Chapter 15 listening and fill in the gaps exercises
seem to be the main strategy adopted to practice both the old and new
vocabulary.

Chapter 20 focuses on talking about one’s family, age, and hobbies. Unusually
placed so late in a book (namely, at the very end of Part 1), these topics are
used to introduce the imperfect tense and its extensive use in Italian. The
sample self-introduction introduces new words and idioms, which are not
practiced – instead the only focus is on the new verb tense and how to use
with regular verb and “avere” (to have) and “essere” (to be).

Chapter A is the first of Part 2 and shows a change of pace and general
organization of the teaching style. Now the focus is on descripting pictures –
in this chapter, the Amalfi coast and the island of Capri. No specific
vocabulary is given at first – users of this textbook should use their own
words, first in writing and then orally, to describe what they see in several
photos of local scenery. Most pictures feature  guiding questions (in Italian)
for the activity, like “quale foto ti piace di più?” (which picture do you
like the most?), and also questions to take the speaking activity beyond the
description, such as “racconta la tua ultima vacanza! Sei stato/stata al
mare?” (tell about your last vacation! Have you been to the sea?). Some new
and quite peculiar vocabulary like “tortuose” (winding), “mozzafiato”
(breathtaking), and “borghi marinari” (seaside villages) is introduced at the
end of the chapter.

Chapter E has yet another change of style. There are no pictures to describe,
but rather vocabulary lists and exercises and comprehension questions based on
one main text, ‘around the city of Naples with Lea’. The text targets very
specific words like “battistero” (baptistery), “neoclassico” (neoclassical),
and idioms like “leccarsi i baffi” (translated as ‘to lick one’s chops’), and
provides no translation. A second short text, giving information about
Neapolitan writer Matilde Serao, prompts the reader to research and talk about
folk tales, as well as other pair speaking activities on the topic of books
and reading.

Chapter L “is designed to improve your speaking, listening, and reading
skills” (p. 289) through an explanatory text, pictures to describe, and open
questions on the medieval small town of Cave near Rome. There are also two
main grammar foci: ordinary numbers from 1 to 20, and the conjugation of three
regular verbs (“sorgere”, to rise, “scomparire”, to disappear, and
“ripercorrere”, to retrace – although the latter two are not used anywhere in
the chapter) in the present tense. In addition, difficult vocabulary (e.g.
“sperone di tufo”, tuff spur) from the explanatory text is presented
separately and translated.

EVALUATION

As a general evaluation, one could say that Renzi’s textbook is quite unlike
any other textbook on the market. Its most distinctive feature is a homemade,
rustic character that is expressed by the many family pictures, situations,
and stories that populate the first part book, as well as the genuine vacation
photos taken by the editor and collaborators that guide most activities in
Part 2. The kind of English used for translations and instructions is heavily
influenced by Italian, further adding to this sense of “locally-produced”
textbook. This choice comes with downsides, though, as it gives the textbook
an unpolished and unrefined vibe. It is hard to deny that it looks more like a
collection of handouts than the result of a linear pedagogical project, and
unfortunately the “Microsoft Word” look-and-feel of each page does not help
highlight the efforts made to put all of this material together. The numerous
oversights and typos also suggest poor editing work, and in some cases they
are quite serious. For example, Chapter E is missing from the table of
contents, the introduction of numbers from 100 to 1000 skips 900 in Chapter 1,
Chapter 13 uses professional maps of Urbino and Rome without citing the
source, Chapter 15 has overlapping text that makes an explanatory text
effectively illegible, Chapter 19 has a typo in the title, and minor typos are
scattered throughout the textbook, both in Italian and in the English
translations. For a book that comes with the hefty price tag of £67.99, the
editing work is very approximate. 

Renzi’s textbook is aiming for an extremely specific and narrow audience,
which might explain the unusual topic choice and sequence. Although the front
matters mention CEFR levels, it is not stated, nor clear from the text, in
which way the CEFR descriptors inform the choice of situations and activities,
and how these support the student in progressing from the A1 to the B2 level.
In addition, it is debatable whether the types of activity are always adequate
to the target. As stated in the Introduction, the textbook is supposed to be
suitable for self-study, but about half of the exercises in each chapter
require pair work or feedback from an instructor. Moreover, answers are not
provided for fill-in-the-blanks and other productive exercises, and are also
not available for download on the publisher’s website.

All things considered, what is here marketed as a textbook may not be a
textbook at all. It could be instead seen as a reference book for readings
(albeit very informally written) on mostly local Italian culture to use with
adult learners in an Italian language classroom context. If the audio
recordings are as high quality as advertised, they could also constitute a
valuable resource in the same context. This still needs to be verified when
the recordings will be made available, as they do not come with the book nor
can be downloaded anywhere.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ivan Lombardi is Assistant Professor at the School of Global and Community
Studies, University of Fukui (Japan), where he teaches EMI courses in
linguistics and second language acquisition, among others. His main research
topics are motivation and autonomy in language learning. He is carrying an
ongoing research project on autonomous learning of Italian as a foreign
language with adult Japanese learners.





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