I am an associate professor of Italian and the Director of the Italian Division in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Saint Louis University. My research interests include Medieval and Renaissance Italian literature (particularly Dante, as well as the Renaissance Theater) and the Classical Tradition. I am also an expert on the application of technology (digital interactive media, digitized audio-visual media, Peer-to-Peer and internet-based media) and pop culture to the teaching of foreign language and culture.
My first computer was a Commodore 64, back in 1984. However, my very first microchip came inside a video game system, Pong, which I received for Christmas 1977. Since the early ‘90s I’ve been collecting video game systems and home computers. In 1998-1999 I was the U.S. correspondent for the leading video game magazine in Italy at the time. I also had a regular column on the history of video games. I believe that there is still a whole sector of video gaming application with foreign language learning that is wide open and as yet not fully explored. Whatever the future brings, I know that Bright Hub will be there to assist you with your software and media purchases, providing knowledgeable yet accessible reviews!
Ph.D. in Italian, University of Connecticut, 2001
Laurea in Lettere, Universita` di Torino, 1991
“Enhancing Language and Culture Learning Through Peer-to-Peer Technology.” In print, Academic Exchange Quarterly, Spring 06.
“In Praise of the Revolution: Using Napster-like Software to Teach Italian Language and Culture”. In print: Italian Cultural Studies 2001, Florida Atlantic University (2004), pp. 1-12.
I've been teaching Italian as a foreign language since August 1994, when I began my Ph.D program at the University of Connecticut. I love teaching language, literature, cinema and culture! Technology, if properly used, can immensely enhance foreign language acquisition, and make it fun, practical, and time-efficient as well.
Since 2002 I serve as technical consultant for my department and I am a member of the Departmental Language Lab Committee. Since 2006 I also serve as my department’s representative in the College of Arts and Science Technology Committee.
My own experiences as a foreign language student has always played an essential role in guiding my pedagogical approach to the teaching of foreign language and culture. To this day, I am more likely to remember vocabulary, idioms and irregular verbs from some song, comic-book, magazine or TV show, rather than from my textbooks or the dedicated efforts of my language teachers. Of course, I am not denying the clear value of foreign language teaching: language classes provided me with very useful, necessary structures, but I feel it was the time I spent with my pop-culture realia that helped me improve my languages. These media taught me structures, as well as idioms and slang that I would not have been able to access in the classroom.
In my teaching experience, using interactive digital media, video, audio and other realia both in and outside the classroom has also proven to be the best didactic tool to reinforce linguistic skills and expose students to contemporary foreign culture. This has contributed substantially to the enhancement of the quality of my teaching.
Obviously some digital interactive media are more effective than others.