"The New Curricula of the Base School"

Excerpt concerning the two modern European languages taught in the seven year base school

(Translation by Lamberto Bozzi)

B. - The first two years: From the "experience fields" to the "areas"

First modern European language

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence

understanding the general sense of sound-acoustic units (words, simple sentences, etc.);
understanding simple instructions in order to move about , draw, play and sing;
understanding the general sense of songs, tales, nursery rhymes, real or imaginary stories;
connecting expressions and words with people, animals, objects, places, events (real or imaginary);
reproducing songs, tales, nursery rhymes, stories, etc. in a clear and articulate way.

Contents and/or activities

Listening/reproducing

sound-acoustic units, rhythmic groups, intonation in simple expressive-creative contexts;
simple instructions;
songs;
counting out; The cat that could count
nursery rhymes; The rabbit that didn't like his dinner
brief stories (real or imaginary).

C. - From the third to the seventh year: From the "areas" to the "subjects"

First modern European language

Listening and understanding

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence

identifying the main communicative and expressive function of an utterance according to variables like rhythm, accent and simple prosodic curves;
understanding brief, clearly spoken oral messages;
understanding simple instructions in order to interact with classmates and teachers, utilize learning aids, teach oneself;
understanding brief oral messages relative to everyday needs;
understanding simple register differences (colloquial vs. formal) in family and social conversational exchanges;
understanding and getting basic information from a brief text recorded on tape;
identifying the main point of an audio-visual sequence.

Contents and/or activities

brief oral messages, as a call, an assertion, a question, an answer, an order, a request, etc. concerning communicative contexts such as one's own and somebody else's identity, the family, the home, the school, everyday events;
brief oral messages concerning communicative contexts relative to socializing, leisure, services, the media (radio, television, the Internet), everyday events.

Speaking and Interacting

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence

interacting during the activities with classmates and teachers to signal that one hasn't understood, ask to repeat, ask the meaning of something, give/ask for something, give/follow simple instructions, confirm, paraphrase, etc.
answering simple and direct personal questions, uttered slowly and clearly, in simple interviews;
asking/answering simple questions about immediate needs or well known subjects;
adopting simple strategies, for instance to draw attention, start or finish a brief conversation, ask to repeat, etc.;
taking part in a simple conversation and using brief dialogues in order to socialize;
answering/asking questions about leisure, habits, everyday and school activities;
describing oneself or a classmate or one's own pen friend/foreign guest, linking words and expressions with simple connectors;
narrate, even in incomplete sentences, an event real or imaginary, concisely placing people and facts in time and space;
asking questions about what one has previously listened to, about a text assigned as a reading or during the reading, about the behavioural aspects of the target culture, etc;
using features that are paralinguistic (accent, rhythm, intonation) and extralinguistic (non verbal language: gestures, facial expressions, drawings) to express feelings, indicate unknown obiects and ask for an explanation in interacting situations.

Contents and/or activities

interaction with peers and teachers; simple interviews, brief conversational exchanges (with teachers or native speakers) on family life in structured communicative situations.
greeting people.
introducing people.
inquiring about people's health and replying in an appropriate way.
thanking people
accepting/refusing something
expressing personal feelings
inviting people
making proposals
expressing opinions (agreeing and disagreeing).
requesting and giving directions
asking for information about people, family events.
describing and narrating

Reading and understanding

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence.

finding the phoneme-grapheme correspondence of the foreign language using simple words and sentences.
recognizing names, words and familiar sentences written on signs in the most common everyday situations.
understanding iconic-graphic texts, brief personal messages, directions.
identifying relevant information in simple written texts.
guessing the meaning of unknown words from the context.
predicting the beginning, the continuation, the end of a text starting from extralinguistic clues, from paratextual elements, from the title, from key-words.
extracting relevant information from a simple written text (with regard to activities and personal interests, i.e. the instructions for assembling a model, the ads written to look for pen friends).
being able to consult a dictionary.

Contents and/or activities

text-words, posters, labels, captions, cards, essential descriptions (people, places, real and imaginary objects).
brief personal letters, e-mail.
brief newspaper articles.
brief personal stories.
instructions and simple regulations ( instructions for using a payphone , safety measures, etc.).
announcements, advertisements, brief audio-visual sequences, the Web, headwords in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries.

Writing

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence

copying common words and brief sentences.
producing a brief written text using one's own oral vocabulary.
writing figures and dates, names of persons, place names, captions, lists, etc.
producing brief texts starting from iconic-graphic materials.
note-taking.
writing a greeting card, a post card, an e-mail, a brief personal letter.

Contents and/or activities

instructions, directions, brief notes, number and dates, captions, lists
notes for immediate needs.
brief, simple messages to friends, teachers, or acquaintances (i.e. post cards).
brief personal letters (giving and requesting information, thanking, accepting or refusing an invitation).
brief descriptions/narrations of events, personal experiences, activities, family life.
simple biographies (real or imaginary) and simple poems.

Reflection on the language

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence

comparing words or brief sentences to find similarities and differences in form and meaning.
consciously following the grammar rules.
acknowledging one's mistakes and correcting them according to internalized rules and usage.
comparing the foreign language and culture with one's own.

Contents and/or activities

word form
communicative and intentional functions
elementary grammar structures
one's own and others' habits and behaviour
rules and models (from a linguistic/cultural point of view)
recurring phenomena and socio-cultural behaviour

Second Modern European Language (6 th and 7 th year)

Listening and understanding

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence

identifying the main communicative and expressive function of an utterance according to such variables as rhythm, accent and simple prosodic curves.
understanding oral messages, brief, simple and well articulated.

Contents and/or activities

brief oral messages (calls, assertions, questions, answers, orders, requests, etc.) characteristic of communicative familiar and everyday contexts relative to one's own and other people's identity, the family, the home, the school, everyday events.

Speaking and interacting

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence

interact during the activities with classmates and the teacher to signal one hasn't understood, ask to repeat, ask how to translate a word, give or ask for something, give and follow simple directions, confirm, paraphrase, etc.
asking simple questions;
answering questions about immediate needs or well known topics;
answering simple direct personal questions, uttered slowly and clearly in simple interviews.

Contents and/or activities

interaction with peers and teacher(s);
greeting, introducing oneself /introducing people, enquiring after people's health and properly reacting to the information one receives, thanking, accepting/refusing something, expressing likes and dislikes.

Reading and understanding

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence

examining the grapheme-phoneme correspondence of the foreign language through simple words and sentences;
recognizing names, words and familiar sentences on posters in common everyday situations;
understanding iconic-graphic texts, short personal messages, descriptions, directions.

Contents and/or activities

Text-words, posters, labels, captions, cards, essential descriptions ( of people, places, things real and imaginary).

Writing

Specific learning objectives with regard to the students' competence

copying familiar words and brief sentences
producing a brief written text with words from one's own oral vocabulary
writing numbers and dates, names of people and places, captions, lists, etc.

Contents and/or activities

word form;
functions and communicative purposes,
elementary grammar structures,
habits and behaviour (one's own and other people's).

Modern European languages

Language teaching provides the students with the basic means of communication within the EC. Communication and intercultural education are the foundation of the curriculum which is in particular aimed at:

promoting the awareness of European citizenship through the early contact with two languages;
developing communicative competence with mutual reinforcement between the two foreign languages and between them and Italian;
enhancing the students' cognitive flexibility and ability to continue learning languages throughout life.

Language learning with its cultural roots broadens the students' horizons. The interaction of different languages and cultures throughout the Base Cycle makes them aware of the existence of different ways of communicating; urges them to define their identity through diversity; enhances both their individual cognitive development and their viewpoint; helps them acquire a responsible and constructive behaviour. This is all important in the now often multicultural Italian school system.

The curriculum gives priority to the development of oral communicative competences central to the social use of the language. During the first two years the first language is taught within the 'linguistic-expressive' area. It will later grow into an independent subject.

The second language, introduced in the last two years of the Base School, utilizes the first language as a stepping stone and its activities are to be related to those planned for the study of Italian.

The learning objectives, mostly centred on the pragmatic-communicative area, favour the development of across-the-curriculum skills both as learning strategies and as intercultural communication. In particular the vehicular use (verbal and non verbal) of the language will be gradually introduced through laboratory activities.

Each school is free to adopt its own language learning plan in order to guarantee a carefully monitored development of the competences. It may also decide to reinforce one language or both utilizing the compulsory 'teaching time share' at its disposal. In any case, English must be one of the two languages.