Sorry I haven't send contributions so far but I was quite busy last week. I promise I'll be more helpful next week. Thank you Allyson and Enrico for your suggestions, a special thanks to Anna who created the the link for our wiki page.
Today we are going to speak about our project and write an outline, right?
Here are some links where you can find information about these movies:
Well, I think I'll look for more information on del.icio.us and then I will bookmark the most interesting resources. We still have to the decide the tags but I think we'll discuss about it today.
Nowadays immigration is a very debatable issue, especially in Italy. Almost everyday, the news on TV and the newspaper report about flows of illegal immigrants who arrived in Italy in very bed conditions. Immigrants must endure a long and expensive travel by see and they are packed into small and old boat for many days. The conditions on board are very precarious because of the lack of food and water, so when immigrants arrived in Italy, they exhausted and drained by their fast.
Italian politicians have tried to solve the problem of illegal immigration by means of some law. One of the most recent is also the most debated because this law, the Bossi-Fini law was overall ineffective. This law doesn’t prevent illegal immigrants from entering the Italian borders and even though Italian policemen send immigrants back, actually the flow of immigrants arriving is still increasing.
The basic problem is that our country isn’t able to provide to all this people a job and so many immigrants are recruit by criminals. In addition, many people are scared by immigrants and they see in them not only potential criminals but also competitors in the work. Some Italians are afraid of loosing their own job because of the immigrants who settle for a low salary. Actually, I think this is an just an excuse since the immigrants often do the hardest and worst job (an Italian would never do).
In the following class we will discuss this problem in detail and I’ll ask to my peer Allyson to explain us how she perceive the phenomenon of immigration in the US, keeping in mind that Italians were immigrants in the US in the past.
Last week, we did Skype in four, it was quite a mess because sometimes we couldn’t say and listen to our opinions at the same time; however it was very stimulating because the conversation was brilliant and every participant in the conference wanted to support her ideas. Overall, we managed to argue clearly about our political view and I think our exchange was very effective. Not only we discussed valuable issue about elections and politicians but also we find out the importance of voting. It doesn’t matter what candidate you vote, the important thing is to express our opinion and our preference. The following extract are taken from the discussion on Skype among Laura, Alessia, Allyson and me. Enjoy it and let me know what you think about it!
1. In your opinion, to what extent the decision of the army withdrawal from Iraq is a central theme in the political campaign? Allyson: ‘I think it’s very important because Clinton and Obama propose to lave Iraq gradually while McCain is determined to carry on it. I think the was in Iraq was a mistake’.
Why do you think that the war in Iraq was a mistake? Allyson: ‘Bush stated that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but that was an excuse, it was not true.’
2. According to you, what are the most important reasons that persuade American people to vote? Allyson: ‘Some people are more involved other don’t support anyone. In the families, they vote in a different manner. People feel that they don’t have so much control. A lot of people are registered to vote, but they actually don’t vote. I think people should definitely do it, it’s very important.’
3. If Mac Cain wins the elections, he will be the oldest U.S. President. What do you think about it? Could he be the right person to represent also the youngest generations or not? Allyson: ‘I’ve never thought about it. I don’t support him. I don’t think he will be the good choice as president from my personal point of view.’
4. Do you think that Hillary's and Obama's campaigns are more concerned with gender and race than mere political issues? Allyson: ‘I don’t agree to vote for Hillary just because it is a woman. Some old women I know say that they will do vote for Hillary just because she is a woman. As regards Obama, he represents a minority because he is black but I don’t think many people will vote for or against him just because he is black.’ According to you, is there still racism in the US? Allyson: ‘It is not as bad as it was some years ago. People at my college think that they will vote for him because he is a good candidate and not just because he is black.’
5. In the US are there more private or public hospital? Allyson: ‘Most are private. We don’t have that many public services.’ Do you think that private works better? Allyson: ‘Most people think that if you are paid better you do your work better.’
I'd like to reflect a little upon our final project. We are going to decide together the topic of our project. First of all, Anna Bordignon said: 'I would like to compare how Italians learn about Americans and viceversa. How do teachers in the schools present the Italian language and culture? And, do Italians study American language and culture? Why, or why not? Is it important in Italy to differenciate, for example, American English and British English? At which level? Which aspects of Italian/American cultures are studied? Which movies/books/music are chosen, and why? Is this material also studied by Italians in Italy as part of their culture and viceversa?'
I do agree with what my peer Anna wrote. I’d like to write the final project about education and I think that the learning perspective that Anna proposed can be very interesting. I think we should discuss in group about the sources we can find and create. Since our final project can’t be very long I think we should try to write very concise and effective pages. The presentation should be clear, simple and eye-catching. We could divide our project into three parts:
What US students learn about Italian culture? (e.g. past history or contemporary history, Dante or Calvino, only literature or also historical background, normative or descriptive Italian grammar) How do US students learn? (Do they use mainly books or do they exploit technologies effectively? We could provide some explanations about what means US students do use to approach Italian culture, e.g. links of the sites).
What Italian students learn about American culture? (e.g. past history or contemporary history, Shakespeare and Milton or Orwell and , only literature or also historical background, normative or descriptive English grammar) How do Italian students learn? (Do they use mainly books or do they exploit technologies effectively)? As in the previous section, we can include links, pictures and explanations of how do they learn for example, just by listening to pop music, watching videos onYouTube, participating in forums, or watching movies ).
Comparison and analysis of the differences among US and Italian educational systems and perspectives for future students of these languages.
These are just some ideas, I think we need to discuss what aspects are more relevant and what perspective we want to convey in our final project! Think about this, see you on Monday!
I think that one of the best ways to improve language skills is reflect upon them. Since the first year at the university we were trained by our teacher to fill in a form about our linguistic abilities, the EUROPEAN LANGUAGE PORTFOLIO. I think it that the YOGA FORM is another very interesting tool which helps students to understand the weak and strong point of their learning process. The YOGA form is structured into different part according to the different degree of abilities that a student of foreign languages has achieved.
Also, one of the basic parameters to differentiate among learners is the effective time that a student has spent in a foreign country. So students who have participated into an exchange program with another country are expected to have reflected much more in depth about the foreign language. Almost two year ago I spent one semester in Wales and this clearly affected my comprehension of English culture and language. At the University of Aberystwyth, I was compelled to speak English all the day long whether inside or outside the university; formally, by attending classes or informally, by working or socializing with native speakers).
I’m very happy because next year I’ll have another wonderful opportunity to discover another university and spend a semester there. I’ll go to the BU and I think this will strongly affect my studies because not only I’ll improve my learning skills but also I’ll come close to the American culture.
As regards my YOGA form, I think it provides a framework within which I can gradually compile a profile of myself as a learner and user of foreign languages. In my opinion, it’s important that to compile a more objective profile as possible, that’s why I asked my tandem learning partner Abigail to fill in the form and to judge my language abilities. According to her, my degree is very high and I belong to the advanced category of learners, I hope that’s true and I hope to exploit all the suggestions she gives me when we meet. I’ll make them value!
Today I participated in a very interesting conference about US and Italian elections, together with Valentina, Laura and Allyson. We discussed mainly about our own political views and the differences between the American and Italian electoral systems. Among other questions, I asked Allyson these five questions:
1. What are the most important features a political leader must have?
2. Are you influenced by the political campaign or do you have a specific political idea?
3. Do you think you are really represented by your candidate?
4. Is the electoral system really effective?
5. What do you think about the means candidates use in order to promote themselves?
Basically, the most striking answers she gave us consist of the way US people perceive elections. As a matter of fact, Allyson told us that 'theoretically, each “elector” should vote in the way that most people in that area want him/her to, but that does not always happen. That’s how the popular vote can predict that one candidate will win, when in fact they do not have enough electoral votes.'
On Monday we discussed in class the controversial issue of the American electoral system. To sums up, I can say that in the US each state can decide whether to adopt a proportional electoral system or a 'winner takes all system'. For this reason, there are states which result to be much more important than other states. Here is the explanation Sarah gave us in class:
Let's say that in Vermont, one candidate can gain 10 electoral votes and in Florida, he or she can gain 50 electoral votes. While Vermont has a proportional system, Florida has a 'winner takes all' system. The results are the following:
e.g. Vermont
candidate A takes 80%of the popular votes, he/she takes 8 electoral votes
candidate B takes 20% of the popular votes, he/she takes 2electoral votes
e.g. Florida
candidate A takes 51%of the popular votes, he/she takes all 50 electoral votes
candidate B takes 49%of the popular votes, he/she takes none electoral vote.
So, Italian and American electorla systems are very different and we all agreed in saying that they should be reformed in order to be more effective. If you want to read more on the subject, please, ahve a look at our forum and leave a comment.
