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Problems for Learners in ItalyOver the past year, I was fortunate enough to have lived, traveled, and taught across Italy. On this journey, I noticed recurring problems italian students had with english. I found these difficulties in everything from pronunciation, grammar, and the educational culture. italian learners, across the board, had problems when it came to creating specific sounds in english. These problems were rooted in the fact that italian is a phonetic language. Every letter is pronounced unlike english which has letters and sounds you don’t pronounce; even words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently, i.e. ‘read’ and ‘read’. The first problem was the ‘th’ /?/ sound; Italians do not have dental fricatives in their language. They typically replace this sound with a /t/ or /d/ sound. I would have to show the students how to form the dental fricative with their mouth by having them stick their tongues out, close their teeth around their tongue, and blow out. The younger learners especially enjoyed the spray of saliva this sometimes made. The second recurring pronunciation difficulty was the urge to end every word with the /?/ sound. “I like? cats?” Even after pointing out this constant /?/ ending, students still found it difficult to hear they were doing it. Finally, pronouncing the /h/ sound proved to be difficult as well. Again, this sound does not exist in the italian language. When talking about hunger and thirst, it was typical for a student to say, “I am angry.” They would leave off the aspirated /h/ sound. A great way of showing the difference between “angry” and “hungry” would be to rip up a piece of paper into small bits and put them in the palm of your hand. Putting your hand to your mouth, you would say, “angry” and the pieces wouldn’t move. Then you would say, “hungry” and the pieces would fly off your hand. This visualized the aspirated /h/ sound and typically corrected the problem. When it came to grammar, there was one persistent problem for most students. The use of the auxiliary verb ‘do’ when asking questions. “You like Italy?” “You like Kobe Bryant?” were frequent questions I was asked. As with many of the pronunciation problems for Italians, this problem arose because there was no counterpart in the italian language. The students would understand that ‘do’ needed to be there upon explanation, but it felt unnatural to them. The best way to work this out was through repetition and games like the question circle. Another problem I found for Italians was their learning culture. For many years, in all subjects, the educational system has relied too heavily on books. Students in Chemistry don’t learn with experimentation; rather, they learn solely with books. This reliance on books carried over to english and created a teaching culture that pressed the importance of grammar, out of grammar books, above all else. The negative effect this has had is that students are unable to speak the language. They may be able to complete a worksheet on the past tense, but they are unable to carry a fluid conversation in english. Thankfully, some schools are starting to shift away from this model. Teachers are encouraged to get the students out of their desks and up doing english activities and games, much like the ones described in this course. The difference this teaching style makes for the students is palpable. Like any monolingual group learning english, Italians have their own set of problems they bring to the table. On my journey through Italy, I witnessed countless errors in pronunciation and grammar from non-native teachers, but they shouldn’t be faulted. They can’t hear the difference between “angry” and “hungry” just like their students. I suppose that’s why learning from a native english speaker is valued. We bring an authentic voice to the language and give the students the best chance of succeeding when they use english in school and abroad. Sources: Gutkowski, Emanuela. "english Language for italian Students: Some Examples of Interference." Durham University. Durham University. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. . Shoebottom, Paul. "Language Differences: english - italian." A Guide to Learning english. Frankfurt International School. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. . "Non-native Pronunciations of english." Wikipedia. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .