Language links for life

A backyard in Cobram, regional Victoria, towards the end of the 20th century, may at first seem an unlikely setting to spark off a passion for languages.

Where others have been drawn to the study of Italian through art, culture and history, the University of Melbourne’s Italian program’s Matthew Absalom credits his love and life-long study of languages to the relationships he had with his childhood neighbours – an Italian immigrant family who gladly shared their traditions with the curious kid from next door.

“Serendipitous connections can really shape your life,” he says.

“I grew up in country Victoria on the Murray River when the after-effects of the waves of Italian immigration to Australia were still very evident.

“Our neighbour on one side was a stern Italian man called Adam D’Aquila, or Adamo. Around my first birthday, his wife Maria and son Frankie joined him from Italy. Frank was my age and that’s when my contact with Italian began.”

As the D’Aquila family settled into life in Cobram, their backyard evolved into a miniature Southern Italy, with grapes, beans, vegetables of all types, tomatoes, and salami hanging from the back verandah. Mr Absalom says life over the back fence was seductive and left an indelible mark on his own life.

“For my first four to five years, I spent a lot of time with the D’Aquila family and was changed by the experience – this is clear now but it wasn’t necessarily obvious back then.”

A number of years on from these formative experiences and Mr Absalom continues to engage in partnerships to enrich the learning experience, both for his students and his own professional development.

As a teacher, researcher, professional linguist, translator and published author, his engagement work with a number of regional and metropolitan secondary schools earned him a Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Excellence award in late-2011.

The award-winning project is linking senior secondary students in years 10 to 12 with first-year University students of Italian to encourage and support them into tertiary study.

As key participants in last year’s program, students from McGuire College in Shepparton took part in a number of site visits, both in Shepparton and in Melbourne. For the past two years, these Italian students have also visited the Parkville campus to attend a performance by first-year advanced Italian language and culture students.

“Each year the visiting secondary students watch this final assessment piece – a performance of an Italian farce by Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo called Non tutti I ladri vengono per nuocere (The Virtuous Burglar), and have the opportunity to meet with our University students, some of whom come from the same regional area,” Mr Absalom says.

“This sort of engagement activity has so many benefits for everyone involved – the secondary and tertiary students, their teachers and for the growth of Italian studies in Victoria.”

McGuire College students were part of a larger group of schools to take part in the theatre project, with eight urban and country schools in 2010 (around 200 students) and nine schools in 2011 (around 300 students).

Mr Absalom believes this partnership work is an integral part of the teaching and learning process for tertiary students, who can often feel the disconnect between learning language in the classroom and its application beyond study.

“Italian is a living language, and our students are adult learners – connecting their learning to real world experiences is incredibly important,” he says.

“These connections can be the difference in motivating a student to continue their study of Italian because they can see that it’s relevant, purposeful and has potential applications they may never have considered.

“The true spirit of the University’s engagement focus rests on this effort to make connections outside the classroom. But engagement must not be tokenistic, it must be something enriching for students, staff and our external partners.”

As the 2012 school year gets underway, Mr Absalom will continue his project work with visits to schools in Shepparton and Mildura and begin a new collaboration with Santa Maria College in Northcote. University students will also take part in a new mentor program linking advanced with beginner first year students.
http://languages.unimelb.edu.au/