IT Piloting Report – P2 Comune di Perugia In questo report viene raccontata l’esperienza sperimentale di insegnamento informale della lingua italiana organizzata e messa in pratica nella città di Perugia da parte del Comune, partner del progetto Bazaar. Vengono descritti gli aspetti fondamentali di quest’esperienza didattica e umana, che si è sviluppata lungo un arco temporale di cinque mesi e che ha portato un servizio innovativo in una delle piazze cittadine più multiculturali e, quindi, più naturalmente votata a realizzare quello “scambio” reciproco che è il cuore di Bazaar. I protagonisti di questa esperienza sono le persone, i docenti e i volontari ma soprattutto i partecipanti alle sessioni di lingua e cultura italiana: ne vengono quindi descritte le caratteristiche fondamentali, le esigenze e i bisogni e le attività che il progetto Bazaar, grazie ai collaboratori e agli insegnanti, ha messo a loro disposizione. Non vengono nascoste le criticità che si sono dovute affrontare, così come i successi, i risultati e la lezione imparata durante il percorso. Alcune foto e link a materiali didattici testimoniano concretamente il lavoro svolto, per la cui documentazione completa si rimanda in fine di report a tutte le risorse multimediali del progetto disponibili sul web.
Place of piloting
This took place in a Sunday market organized by the Municipality in the main square of a neighbourhood with relevant social features, like for instance a high density of migrants; then we added an indoor weekly meeting in some rooms of the CdP’ s offices. Timing The piloting took place during a sixteen weeks period between March and June 2014. We had the sessions every Sunday from about 10-13:00 and also for one hour and a half 17.30-19.00 every Tuesday starting from April. We estimate a total amount of 55 hours. Target Group A very mixed group of migrants, with a prevalence of men, from all over the world, but especially from Africa, South America and China, living in Perugia or in some near municipalities; some recent but most have been there many years. Ages range from about 20 to 50 with the average being 35.
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Learners’ needs The target group showed the general need to improve their language skills in Italian as well as to reinforce the educational ones. Reasons given for wanting to learn Italian ranged from increasing their social relationships and their integration in the host community, also regarding to civil matters, to finding a new or better job, including starting their own business. In the outdoor stage of this piloting we identified the needs just by asking them and speaking about their lives, whereas in the indoor stage the learners were requested to fill a questionnaire with the trainers’ and coaches’ help. The level of language was rather different, fluctuating between A1 and B1 CERF, but with many grammar approximation in the higher levels. Activities done and tools used It was clear from the first Sundays at the market that the main peculiarity of this group was the fluctuation in attending the sessions; furthermore, we went to that market square because we assumed it was a relevant venue for the migrant community but we did not know exactly who and what we would meet. Adding these two facts, the result was that we provided specific and “tailored” materials and activities, which were defined step by step according to the different demands. Our approach has always had as starting point the methodological recommendation by CEFR, with the purpose of developing the communicational skills and abilities, of knowing how to deal with the language, always having as a reference point the text in the target language. Despite that, we were flexible in adapting the general approach to the different educational habits and background of the participants: for instance, it was sometimes necessary to resort more to grammar activities and to the translation, putting the communicative approach aside for a while. In the market squares we used only paper learning materials, that is texts and pictures (sometimes mixed, like with this comic strip1), since it was not possible to plug a computer in, whereas in the indoor stage we could also exploit audio-visual equipment and so audio-visual texts, especially videos. We always approached the people with a smile, a relaxed attitude and some linguistic games to break the ice.
Activities and content relevance Referring to the learners’ needs, we proposed activities linked to matters of civil and social life and to professional needs, like for instance introducing themselves and other people in a simple way, understanding and filling a form with their personal data2, interacting with the employers of a bureau and with the doctor, reading and understanding the labels of cleaning products to use them in the correct way3, and other similar activities. About the kind of the activities for which skills, they ranged from the listening and reading comprehension, writing and speaking, interaction with the 1
http://www.bazaarproject.eu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/FUMETTO-DAL-MEDICO.pdf http://www.bazaarproject.eu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/MI-PRESENTO.pdf 3 www.bazaarproject.eu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/VERBO-ESSERE-E-LESSICO-DETERGENTI.docx 2
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classmates working in pairs, to grammar deepening or real tasks, like writing a short curriculum vitae.
The relevance of the Bazaar Approach There are some free Italian courses at a range of levels available in the municipality’s area but the learners were not able to access them because of a mix of lack of information and lack of time. Most of the participants are full - time workers and they do not have enough time to attend a course especially in the morning sessions. Therefore the relevance of the Bazaar approach was to involve ‘hard- to- reach people’ who probably would never go to a formal course. The Bazaar approach also has been a ‘life – embedded learning experience’, since it met the specific learners’ needs of real life and that was successful thanks to the extreme flexibility of the approach itself in changing and adapting step by step as the participants (and so their educational backgrounds, their communicative habits, their lives, their needs) continuously changed.
Difficulties and outcomes The main difficulty of this piloting was surely the variation of the attendance to the sessions and the impossibility in reaching a high number of participants. We noticed a more regular attendance in the indoor stage in the classroom, when there were a fixed time and place for the activities, than at the market square, when people came essentially for purchases and to socialize with the countrymen. It was as if they did not feel the market place as a learning environment, unlike the indoor classroom. It is probably due to the educational background’s bias, which has to be taken into account. A great fluctuation in the attendance makes very difficult to follow a regular syllabus or learning programme, so we worked with a ‘dynamic syllabus”, based on thematic areas and tasks of strict interest and practical value, rather than a progression of grammar or functional content.
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Outputs and results The main result was the engagement in cultural actitivites of people who probably would never been interested in such things; creating opportunities for socializing and meeting also with local people; improving the educational basic skills like writing and reading and a better linguistic awareness about the correct way to pronounce or write a word in Italian, since in this specific geographic context is still much current the use of dialect in everyday interactions. Some of the participants, when they were asked in the final focus group, appreciated that the contents were easy and relevant for their needs: a participant from Morocco in a video shot after the focus group said: “The Bazaar Project was a very useful project for me, which made me meet other people from other countries and…this project provides easy training programs and lessons to learn the Italian language and…I would suggest to attend it to other foreigners.” The next stage includes sending to the participants news about the project and more learning materials for the individual study at home. There is also an important result in terms of networking between the Bazaar project (specifically the Municipality of Perugia )and associations of migrants or generally related to multicultural matters: staying in the market squares ans so meeting and talking with many different people gave us the chance to create a first contact and a ‘bridge’ toward other opportunities and first steps in the field of language learning and of support to the migrants’ communities in the Perugia’s district.
Lessons Learnt The key lessons suggested by the trainers are:
Try to find and arrange the sessions in the most suitable and confortable place for the target group, to facilitate and increase the participation. Proximity to home, possibility to easily reach the place by public transport and a timetable tailored on the needs of the student workers. It is highly recommended a great dissemination before and during the activities, especially with a direct flyering in the city’s areas, the shops and all the places frequented by the migrants/the target group. It is also recommended, when possible, the engagement of a peer mentor from the community. In some cases it was difficult to explain the project and to make the learners understand the instructions in the activities or in the focus group. It is important to make the Bazaar project be a ‘bridge’ for further learning occasions at the end of the project, so: sending more learning materials, informing the participants about other language courses, both formal and informal, when possible involving them in the online life of Bazaar, as in the blog and in the Facebook page. 4
Flexibility is essential: in adapting the learning materials, in changing the timing due to specific needs of the learners, in “forgetting” all the things we learnt about formal teaching and in being ready to start a real exchange.
Further reading For the stories and the learning materials about this piloting please visit the Blog of the project: http://www.bazaarproject.eu/blog/ For all the other products please visit the Resources page of the Bazaar website: http://www.bazaarproject.eu/en/resources For a quick interaction, for news and for any comments and feedback please visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BazaarLearnAndExchangeAtTheMarketplace?fref=ts
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