The aim of the Italian program is to create an environment whereby children can acquire language skills in a spontaneous and natural way by experiencing real communication through enjoyable activities.
2022 saw the Emmaus community embarking on a new languages journey as we embraced the Teachers as Co Learners (TCL) pedagogical approach to language learning. In a TCL approach all teachers and students are learners of the target language, which in our case is Italian. Time is allocated everyday to ensure frequent exposure to, and learning of, both Italian and English.
The aim of our language program is to encourage all community members to develop the skills to converse in Italian. Our Italian coach, Signora Paula, meets with teachers weekly to teach them new words and phrases and provides coaching and resources for teachers to use daily. Gestures are learnt along with the words to support vocabulary acquisition, retention and recall. Signora Paula visits each class once a week to model how we can use these words and phrases to speak to one another in Italian.