Page 26 - Galli - Memelli, Le scienze semplici, Pavia, Pavia University Press, 2013

Science Made Easy. Simplified Pathways for Foreign Learners

Silvia Galli and Silvia Memelli

Abstract

Le scienze semplici contains six simplified Science pathways specifically thought for
foreign learners and aims to support students in approaching school textbooks in a
gradual and autonomous way.
The volume includes illustrated units that have been created on the base of textbooks in
use in Italian secondary school. The pathways follow the Ministry of Education Science
programs (first and second year) and are suitable for Italian as a second language
instruction and high school multilingual classes.
The text deals with one of the main problems of nowadays Italian school: foreign
students’ school success. As a matter of fact, once students have solved first
communication problems, it is necessary to help them carry out specific school tasks:
understanding class textbooks and giving oral presentations, understanding the teacher’s
talk and taking notes, summarizing, writing descriptive or expository texts etc. These
observations have brought the two authors to experiment a Science language lab held in
the two towns of Crema and Cremona. The book is the result of this experience.
Science has been specially chosen, as this is one of the disciplines in which the
biggest number of failures has been registered. In fact, as it contains the typical
features of scientific textbooks, such as specialized lexicon, information density,
nominalizations, impersonal forms, passive tense and so on, Science is particularly
hard for non Italian speakers.

Silvia Galli is Professor of Italian as a second language at Brescia University. She
collaborates with Università per Stranieri di Siena as an assessor of CILS Italian
language exam and as an online tutor for DITALS Master’s degree. She is currently
collaborating with high-schools in Cremona as a teacher of Italian and as a
teachers trainer.

Silvia Memelli is Professor of Italian as a second language at Bocconi University in
Milan. She collaborates with Università per Stranieri di Perugia as an online tutor for
the Master’s degree in Teaching Italian as a Second language. She is an online
professor of Italian language and culture at Politecnico of Milan. She is currently
collaborating with high-schools in the area of Cremona as a teacher of Italian L2 and
as a teachers trainer.

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