Languages – Italian

The Campbellfield Heights Primary School community chose Italian as their preferred LOTE as many of the local secondary schools offer Italian in their curriculum and therefore it seemed like the most appropriate choice. This decision was also established, after two comprehensive parent surveys regarding a choice of language to be taught at the school after a hiatus of a language program for a number of years. The teaching of Italian commenced in 2015 in Years Prep- 2. The program has been extended to Year Prep -6 in 2017. As a result the community have developed an ownership of the language taught which has created a very positive and supportive environment for a language program to thrive and develop.

The Italian program at CHPS is taught as a separate subject for 1 hour a week. The Italian program promotes social cohesion and global awareness by giving students many opportunities to compare and contrast their home culture with the Italian and the Australian culture.

The Italian language program at CHPS is:

• a language acquisition program: while the long-term aim of the program is to develop proficiency in the target language, learners have regular opportunities to practise in a supportive environment where fluency rather than accuracy is the initial aim
• literacy-based: learners acquire an understanding of the grammar, word and sentence construction, phonology, as well as an extensive vocabulary in the target language
• personalised and scaffolded: the learner’s first language literacy is acknowledged and considered so that pedagogy, curriculum and learning environments meet the needs of individual learners
• blended: combines face-to-face classroom methods and online learning (Remote Learning)
• cognitively demanding: learners have the opportunity to apply higher-order reasoning and thinking skills and engage with age-appropriate content
• authentic and contextualized: language is used in meaningful contexts for authentic purposes
• engaging: learners play an active role in their own learning

The content descriptions of the Languages curriculum F–10 are organised through two interrelated strands. The two strands are Communicating and Understanding. Each strand contains several sub-strands. Content descriptors and achievement standards from the languages curriculum are embedded into weekly and termly planners for Italian at CHPS. Learning intentions and success criteria are documented into weekly planners as well, and are always a direct reference to the standard being addressed in each lesson.