To understand Italian Children you must understand a little of the culture that makes them unique. If you appreciate them as ‘little people’ and accept them as individuals you will be well on the way to understanding.
At the camps, bonding is imperative. Remember respect is a two-way relationship; offer respect and you shall receive it in abundance. Don’t ever try to pre-empt a child’s reaction to activities you devise, you may be surprised at what does and doesn’t entertain! You will discover that the responsibility put upon you by the parents is total, you must protect, teach and nurture their babies to the best of your abilities. Remember, as a teacher you have the greatest gift in the world to impart - knowledge - however, this must be done in a fun almost non-authoritative way. Keep in the forefront of your mind that this is a holiday for the children. They sit in a classroom all year, and attend the camps during their school holidays - if you make an impact with English, they’ll never forget it. You will encounter children at all stages of learning, if you can give your attention to every child, listen to their problems, work with their ideas and dispel their fears, then happy pupils and appreciative parents are your prize. You may encounter a language barrier, but try gesticulating, drawing, acting, anything to overcome this.
Progress at a speed you can all work along, most younger children will spend more time colouring in the pictures than writing the words, so you may have to offer incentives to move onto the next page in a book (bribery at a young age always works!) Older children may be more intent on conversations, so research a subject they understand and enjoy, try to find a common ground. Dissuade children from bringing distracting elements into the group, such as Gameboys and mobile phones. Revise all previous learning areas with quizzes to ensure everybody understands the concepts.
Italian children require enormous amounts of energy, enthusiasm and ideas to keep them entertained. The more material you have prepared, the easier it will be to keep their attention. Speak slowly, communicate at their pace, but keep the activities going. Things involving an element of competition will get children involved - team games, quizzes, bingo etc. Songs of any type, but especially pops songs, are also extremely useful and popular - they are a great way to get the students to enjoy repetition without boring drilling.
In our work with children, we have noticed areas of great difficulty. They find long vowel sounds confusing, such as the A and E sound being transposed. Words that push the tongue up to the teeth can also cause problems, e.g. ‘The Theatre closes on Thursday’. Some children also have problems with breathy words using the ‘H’ sound, e.g. ‘He Has Her Hat’. Present continuous is another lesson requiring a lot of work, as does the Saxon Genitive (’s), and ‘do/does’ The more songs, games and activities you can prepare involving these points the better.
You may find it difficult to reduce your vocabulary, but to communicate effectively you should use a maximum of 50 - 200 words. Try practising this by speaking on a subject for ten minutes, introducing yourself, talking about games, parts of the body, the weather or the family, only using a maximum of 100 words. Other areas you may find uncomfortable are speaking slowly, repeating key phrases or making conversation at lunch and break times. These are all imperative areas you need to work at as they ensure understanding between tutor and pupil.