Educational Classes at G12

English/Italian Lessons at G12

Teaching your child a second language from a young age gives them a fantastic start in life. Research has shown that the benefits of being multi-lingual at an early age will be beneficial in later life. Young bilinguals go on to develop stronger problem solving skills, become more creative, and understand their own culture and the cultures of others.

This takes time to develop, with young bilinguals going through the learning curve. There is a large consensus - amongst Educational Specialists and Psycholinguistics - that young bilingual children perform poorer in their reading, writing and spelling, than non-bilingual children. However, they do catch up, but more importantly, with the appropriate education and support, bilingual children supersede non-bilingual.

The English/Italian classes at Parliamo Italiano are the ideal opportunity to reduce this gap between your bilingual child and non-bilingual children. The reduction of this gap is important at the early stages of a child’s development, as it will increase their self-esteem, confidence and motivation.

The Programme

 

The programme involved at the university has been developed and designed by Dr Kilborn, senior lecturer in Psycholinguistics, and his fellow student/colleague Miss Kearney, primary school Teacher.

The weekly programme of one hour and 30 minutes is split into two sessions. The first will focus on English and the second on Italian. They will be taught simultaneously by registered Scottish primary school teachers and assisted by native Italian teachers.

English Language

The first session will teach, reinforce and consolidate the English phonics (sounds within words). This will be done using the Jolly Phonics Teaching Programme, which will help to identify any common errors that may be produced between both English and Italian language. For example, the pattern of letters ‘ch’ in English and ‘ci’ in Italian are phonetically similar and a child learning English and Italian could be easily mistaken by spelling ‘chatter’ as ‘ciatter’ or ‘ciao’ as ‘chow’.

Italian Language

The second session will be a facilitated learning programme, with emphasis on Italian vocabulary and grammar. This will be done with participation in a variety of games, songs and classroom activities in order for your child to have fun while they are learning.

The Staff