The Department of Modern Languages, Translation and Interpreting at Swansea University in collaboration with local primary schools is delivering storytelling workshops in Italian, French, Spanish and Mandarin to promote literacy in English as L1. St. Roberts RC and Thornhill Primary are the schools piloting the initiative.

Engaging storytelling workshops have taken place at St. Roberts Roman Catholic and Thornhill Primary schools. Led by Dr Giovanna Donzelli (MLTI Teaching Pathway Lead), Ms Romina Rossi (Swansea University alumna and Literacy Coordinator at St. Robert Primary School) and Maria Luisa Pandolfi (SIAL Italian specialist at Thornhill Primary), the workshops aimed to introduce storytelling as a gateway to explore new languages and cultures. Arwenna Lee, a second-year student of Modern Languages at Swansea, also made an important contribution to the initiative. More undergraduate students, namely Freya Cookson (ML) and Yan Yihan (Chinese Translation & Interpreting), have since joined the project and will be contributing to future editions of the international languages workshops.

Dr Donzelli is currently working on the design of innovative, research-informed materials that explore stories and poems in a range of languages as a window into different cultures and to foster effective communication. These materials will include a user-friendly pedagogical guide to assist teachers in effectively implementing the resources in line with the New Curriculum for Wales.

Italian will feature prominently in the new resources; recent studies on Second Language Acquisition in young learners suggest that Italian has a higher facilitative effect on first language literacy, particularly in reading accuracy and phonological processing, compared to other language groups. This advantage may be attributed to the transparent grapheme-phoneme correspondence in Italian, which fosters the development of noticing skills and encourages learners to confidently transfer knowledge to the learning and usage of other languages.

The project will see students from Swansea University actively involved in teaching languages in local primary schools, providing our undergraduates with invaluable work experience whilst contributing to the development of a global mindset among our young people.

A big thank you to the Year 5 and 6 pupils who have been absolute stars, demonstrating impressive listening skills and successfully remembering an exceptional range of vocabulary in Italian! Popular words and expressions were ‘amici’, ‘malinconico’ and ‘figlio mio!’

Contact: Dr Giovanna Donzelli - g.donzelli@swansea.ac.uk

Teaching Pathway and UG Employability Lead

Modern Languages, Translation and Interpreting

Swansea University