Professional paper
Le otto montagne: Teaching How to Read a Novel and Keep a Reading Journal in Italian as a Foreign Language
Ana Maroević
orcid.org/0009-0006-9754-8911
; University of Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
Kristina Jordan
orcid.org/0009-0004-3117-8298
; University of Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
Abstract
The present paper aims to designs a didactic proposal for teaching university students how to read and understand contemporary Italian novels and how to keep a reading journal. During this lecture, students read the first few pages of Paolo Cognetti’s novel Le otto montagne (The Eight Mountains) to encourage and motivate them to read the entire novel so that they would ultimately see this task not only as an enjoyable way of learning the Italian language and culture but also as an enriching personal experience. This particular novel has the potential to engage students in
reading because of the themes that are very close to young people and also because of the setting
and the emotional charge it conveys. The purpose of keeping a reading journal is to improve students’ writing skills and to provide them with a space to express their creativity and imagination. Even though this experience is an opportunity to foster the students’ autonomy, we believe that the student’s first encounter with the book and the reading journal should be guided by the lecturer to lower the affective filter and consequently increase the students’ motivation and self-confidence.
Keywords
Italian language; literature; didactic proposal; pleasure reading; reading journal
Hrčak ID:
313396
URI
Publication date:
27.12.2023.
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