Leonie Edmonds is the Head of Languages at North Lakes State College, a high school about 30 kilometres from the centre of Brisbane.
The school started an Immersion Program in 2008, in which a group of around 50 students study some subjects in Italian and others in English for three years, from Year 7 to Year 9.
“To be admitted into the program, the boys must demonstrate a good aptitude for languages, be inclined to study and have excellent behaviour. It is crucial that there are no disruptive elements in the classroom,” explains Edmonds.
As for the four Italian teachers involved in the course, these educators have not only the task of language teaching but also of translating relevant materials from English into Italian.
“Some of them are native speakers; others are not. This exposes the children to different accents and helps them to understand better. The greatest difficulty they face is trying to choose terminology that is simple enough to be understood by the class, but at the same time appropriate to the subject matter,” the teacher continues.
There are few students of Italian origin among those in the Immersion Program, as there isn’t a large Italian community in the area. Although they aren’t always studying in their native language, Edmonds says the students achieve amazing results.
"Some of them blossom because of the challenges they face. When we look at the data from past years, we see that all of the children achieve excellent academic results in further education after these three years, and many of them become leaders.”
Before the pandemic, North Lakes State College organised an annual exchange with the Daniele Manin State High School in Cremona.
“One year we would go to Italy, and the next year they would visit us here. The Italian students would host us for a week in their homes and we would do the same when they came to Australia. It’s the same school where I did an exchange when I was a student, ' says the teacher.
The experience left such a mark on Leonie Edmonds that, after those weeks in Italy, she decided that she would learn the language.
Not only did she succeed but she turned it into a profession that allowed her to pass on her love of Italian to other young people.
