Last year marked nine years since the inception of the school’s Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program.
When faced with insufficient enrolments, school principal Brian Hanley decided to take a different approach.
Hanley put together the Language Immersion Team, a group of eight teachers dedicated to deepening students’ connections with the cultural aspects of the languages they study.
“The idea came from the school’s desire to redesign the way languages are taught,” Italian teacher Katy Destro explained.
“The aim is to make the study of languages more engaging and to heighten students’ understanding of these cultures.”
Coordinated by Roberto Asquino, the Language Immersion Team works with classroom teachers and suggests relevant creative or cultural activities for the school’s 470 Italian students.
“In class, we talked about the Italian piazza,” Destro said.
“The students and the Immersion Team made three-dimensional models of a typical piazza, complete with churches, streets and other commonly found aspects.”
The modern languages teachers at St Monica understand that learning a language goes beyond a comprehension of grammar, as students must also be aware of traditions, history and common practices of Italian speakers.
“For our Year 11 and Year 12 students, we organise a trip to our Strath Creek campus, which is about an hour and a half from the Epping premises,” Destro said.
“The whole group speaks Italian; we watch Italian films, do different activities and cook together.
“This year, we’ll make pizza, as we have a wood-fired oven.”
Back at the main campus, students from different grades play football, learn new card games such as briscola and scopa, listen to Italian music and enjoy typical treats like Sicilian cannoli.
Although the bilingual CLIL program has been scrapped, the school’s approach to teaching Italian has not changed.
The language teachers aim to create a holistic program for their students, adding context to the concepts taught in their classrooms.
“We did an interesting project with the Year 10 students, where we examined the different festivals that are native to each region,” Destro explained.
“This helped them to discover local products and the different environments that dominate each part of Italy.”
Hanley’s goal is for the pupils of St Monica’s College to speak the languages they learn as much as possible.
Destro is planning on creating podcasts with her students, to discuss Italian history and personalities of note.
“We teach our Year 11 students about Maria Montessori,” Destro concluded.
“She is a figure that helps our students to understand the role of women in Italian society.
“I also like to include literature in the classroom and encourage students to read some of Alessandro Baricco’s work, as it is an excellent starting point for understanding the use of the subjunctive.”
