University Times

Going beyond the textbook, the language coordinators from French and Italian Languages and Literatures presented “Virtual Visits to France and Italy” during the Teaching Excellence Fair, Oct. 27.

Heather Allen and Veronica Dristas, instructors and language coordinators, created web-based materials – interviews and videos they shot in France and Italy plus other visual/sound information – for online delivery to language teachers and students. The instructors are working with the University’s Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education to set up the web site. About 20 instructors and 500 undergraduates will benefit from the additional instructional materials when it goes online sometime in the near future, according to the two coordinators. Serving as a digital repository for teaching materials, the website will store and catalogue information that might otherwise linger in file cabinets.

Inspiration for the project came after Allen and Dristas unpacked a massive amount of print materials used in other French and Italian classes at Pitt. As language coordinators, they rummaged through old material to compile resources for language teachers in the department, Allen said. They really liked the materials they found and “we wanted to archive it – not just have something that one person takes to the classroom, then their home, then it doesn’t come back.” And a web site would provide students and teachers with a permanent and accessible venue for the material, she said. So Allen and Dristas then pursued and secured a Pitt 2003 Innovation in Education grant.

Cataloguing is but one dimension of the web project: “We want to encourage people to cover themes that cut across proficiency levels in course progression,” Dristas said. For example, one of the website’s visuals is an advertisement from a foreign fashion magazine featuring a longhaired, beautiful French model sitting with an oversized handbag. For students in introductory French, the teacher might ask for a description of the model – the length and color of her hair. But advanced classes can view the same ad and try to answer other questions such as: What kind of product is she trying to sell and who is her audience?

The web site also serves up the countries’ native tongues captured by Dristas and Allen during videotaped interviews of locals in France and Italy. Students will be able to download the video vignettes and, hopefully, gain a better understanding of the cultures. “A lot of texts have scripted dialogues, it’s so unnatural,” Dristas said. And she wants to avoid the shock students often feel when they meet their first native speaker and think, “that’s not how it was in class.” Additionally, the video interviews reveal how some French and Italian subjects view the world. Allen concluded: “This is the type of material that can speak on an intellectual level and challenge students as well.”

-Mary Ann Thomas