The Italian immersion experience: how to make your Languages lessons relevant and inspiring

‘I do not need it’- how many times have we heard this from students who have decided to drop Italian? In the 21st century world, where one of the key components of success is defined by a capacity to operate across languages and plurilingualism is the norm, how can students form an idea of how rewarding and empowering speaking and thinking in another language is? Fulvia’s idea is: let’s bring Italy to them! Using a mix of different approaches, which involve the CLIL method and targeted immersion, this workshop will show you what an ‘immersive classroom’ is. You will take away lots of practical tools and examples on how to make a consistent use of the target language, create activities which are engaging and involve a total body response, as well as build intercultural knowledge and metacognition. Be ready to embark on an adventure, turn your class around and have students want to learn Italian and travel to Italy!

Fulvia Galigani is an experienced Italian teacher and a passionate Languages advocate. Over the past twenty years, she has been working in several Victorian schools in both regional and metropolitan areas. Her teaching career extends to Italy, where she has taught Languages and Literatures and Language Acquisition in an IB International School. An expert in IB (International Baccalaureat) program, Fulvia believes in the role inquiry plays in guiding student learning. She has held the position of KLA Leader for Languages in different schools and has taught students of all ages, from Prep to adult. Fulvia holds a Master’s degree in English and Comparative Literatures, while being at the same time specialised in Linguistics and Language Acquisition.

Inspired by her European background, Fulvia has always been interested in making Languages more relevant for Australian students and at the front of the school curriculum. She believes that having a good knowledge of languages is crucial to successfully operate in the 21st century, as this develops so many other skills, such as better problem solving, diplomacy, citizenship. Fulvia’s wealth of experience and passion are tangible in her presentations and workshops: she likes to share practices that work, discuss ideas and approaches that teachers can take into their class immediately to engage more students in the learning and, ultimately, empower teachers to be advocates for languages.

The best P.D. I have attended in living memory!” I loved every minute of this engaging, interesting and informative PD. And I have been teaching for 40+ years!

“It is the first P.L. in a long long time that I haven’t been checking in with my watch.”

Passionate &  Authentic Speakers – Meaningful Strategies

Loved the honesty in the sharing of information and strategies

I love the fantastic variety of workshops and conferences on offer. Always look forward to Critical Agendas PD’s.

Inspirational Speakers –  the knowledge gained will be so beneficial in my classrooms

Just a big Thank you for giving us the op