EDUCAITALIA, ITALY THAT EDUCATES hospitality, teaching of the Italian language, promotion of the culture of origin

Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at 12 p.m., the ceremony of CILS diplomas delivery in the context of the project “EDUCAITALIA, Italy that educates” will be held in the Multimedia Hall of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO. The young migrants, the beneficiaries of the project will be awarded the CILS Diploma (Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language). The Minister of Education, University and Research (MIUR), Ms. Stefania GIANNINI will participate in this event. Furthermore, the following people will participate in the ceremony: Hassan ABOUYOUB, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco; Maria Amata GARITO, Rector of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO; Khalid CHAOUKI, President of the Culture Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean; Enrico GRANARA, Coordinator for Multilateral Euro-Mediterranean Affairs/Gulf, Ministry of Foreign Affairs – DGAP; Maria Assunta ROSA, Vice-prefect - Head of Staff Office of Policies of the immigration and asylum on the Territory, Ministry of Interior; Massimo ARCANGELI, video teacher - EducaItalia Project; Simona SINOPOLI, President of ARCI – Rome; Tareke BRHANE, Chairman of the 3 October Committee. The project “EDUCAITALIA, Italy that educates”, realised by the NETTUNO Consortium – Network for the University Everywhere - in collaboration with the ARCI Association and the University for Foreigners of Siena as an associate partner, was co-financed by the European Union and the Ministry of Interior. The objective of EDUCAITALIA is to teach the Italian language to the migrants that are guests of the reception centres of Rome and its province with the purpose of obtaining CILS Certificate, thanks to which it is possible to get the residence permit. The course was realised by applying a blended learning model: face-to-face and distance education. Face-to-face teaching was held in the ARCI offices in Rome, and distance course of the Italian language was realised by the NETTUNO Consortium and was composed of 80 video lessons, that are linked to the exercises and to the check activities through virtual classrooms in Second Life. The digitalised video lessons on the internet www.consorzionettuno.it/EDUCAITALIA.aspx will also be transmitted on the digital channel via satellite uninettunouniversity.TV. Moreover, the lessons can be watched on the Sky platform 812 and on TV Sat 701.
In addition to the teaching of the Italian language, the project provided the delivery of the course “I Learn Arabic. The Treasure of the Letters”, realised by the NETTUNO Consortium in order to teach the Arabic language by means of TV and the Internet to illiterate adults of Morocco and to 50 young people born in Italy and belonging to Moroccan families, selected by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in our country. These two distance learning courses - “Learn the Italian language. The Treasure of the Letters” and “Learn the Arabic Language. The Treasure of the Letters”- use the same psycho-pedagogical model, created by Maria Amata Garito. The adopted method combines the synthetic method with the analytical global one. The teacher in the video, prof. Massimo Arcangeli, step by step guides the student to the learning of Italian by illustrating the alphabet, showing how to write, explaining the grammatical structures. At the centre of the video lessons, there are the words, represented by different objects in the room, and the single letters that compose these words. The teacher shows the objects that begin with the letter - topic of the current lesson; he enlarges upon the images, forms, and their uses in daily life; he writes the words and pronounce them correctly, encouraging students to link the words to the images in order to enhance the memorisation capacity and helping them to develop two channels: visual and auditory. The synthetic method combines the analytical global one, thus, the lesson becomes the narration in the virtual world of Second Life. On Second life, in the UNINETTUNO’s Island of Knowledge, a virtual house was built on a three-dimensional scenario: a theatre where the avatars become the actors and represent some stories and activities of a typical Italian family.
Achieved goals:

• 350 young migrants coming from the reception centres of Rome and its province were able to attend the Italian language courses, both in the ARCI office and on the UNINETTUNO’s platform on the Internet;
• 35 young people were selected on the basis of their preparation level to take the CILS exam (Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language delivered by the University for Foreigners of Siena); and 32 of them successfully passed the CILS examination thanks to which they can apply for the residence permit;
• 50  young people born in Italy and belonging to Moroccan families that reside in our Country, were able to learn the Arabic language by means of the distance course realised  by the NETTUNO Consortium “I Learn Arabic - The Treasure of the Letters”;