SOLL staff achievements: an interview with Matthew Absalom
Monica Sestito
Matt Absalom is a lecturer in Italian studies whose research encompasses Italian linguistics, languages education including Computer Assisted Language Learning. He recently received the Dean’s Award for student engagement for his Pavia Project, which allowed students of Italian to engage in a virtual exchange program throughout the pandemic.
Monica interviewed Matt about this project as well as the changing landscape of language learning at universities.
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To start, I’d love to hear more about the Pavia Project and how it got started.
The Pavia Project grew out of an earlier online collaborative project that was proposed to me by an Italian colleague of one of my Australian colleagues. In these first virtual exchanges students were paired and swapped weekly videos on a series of topics.
The Pavia Project itself came about because of my close ongoing working relationship with Roberta Trapè, who was an Italian government lecturer at Melbourne in the early 2000s and is back in Italy teaching English at senior secondary level while maintaining honorary status here at Melbourne. I have taken students to Italy to work in class with Roberta so it was natural for us to pivot to the online environment, particularly during the pandemic.
Roberta had been trialling synchronous interactions between her students and a class in an American university so I decided to do the same with our students. Essentially, over a 5-6 week period our students work with a counterpart in Italy and meet virtually at least once a week y to discuss pre-determined issues. What they learn about Italy is then brought back into the classroom and discussed as a way of promoting intercultural understanding.
Linguistically, students have the option to use Italian and English in these free-flowing interactions and, because they occur outside the confines of the classroom, the emotional barriers that can often hinder communication are perhaps a little less problematic. This year we have put an emphasis on global issues and asked students to identify an issue that interests or concerns them and then propose solutions fit for our different contexts.
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What kind of response have you received to this project from students? Are there any plans to continue with this virtual exchange program, now that overseas travel bans have lifted?
Students have been unanimously positive about the experience. Some are tentative initially and find the idea of communicating with a stranger a little daunting but, by the end, everyone is enthusiastic about their interactions. One student went as far as to say that she wants a virtual exchange in every language subject that she does. Another student recently shared a photo of her with her virtual exchange partner together in person in Canada! Other students have maintained contact and intend to get together in Italy now that travel is once again possible.
Meeting and talking to Italian students has also provided useful linguistic insights (“oh, this is how young people talk”), reassuring realisations (“in some ways, we’re all similar”) and startling revelations (“How can you know what type of specialised school to choose at 14?”).
I have embedded a virtual exchange experience into at least two Italian subjects and this will continue as it provides something for the whole class, not just those who elect to travel or complete study abroad.
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Traditional exchange programs are often so formative for language learners because they are by nature physically immersive. The language you’re learning takes on an immediate, practical dimension because you need it to negotiate everyday life – to buy groceries, use public transport, ask for directions etc. How do virtual exchange programs attempt to maintain this immersive quality?
One of the key things we’ve discovered is that the communication between language students needs to be purposeful. With Roberta, we’ve added this focus on global citizenship and issues of pressing importance. In this way, students have to really get into the details of something, which provides a great tapestry on which to build interaction. Similarly, it is vital that there is some cyclical application of bringing the learning back to class so it is not just a one-off chat that disappears literally into the ether.
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Italian language programs at universities have been in the news a lot recently – and not necessarily for good reasons. A number of universities, such as Flinders and Swinburne, either proposed plans to axe or have already axed Italian studies. This is despite the fact that the Italian language remains highly popular amongst school leavers and continues to be one of the most spoken languages (other than English) in homes. How do you make sense of this changing landscape of Italian studies in Australian educational institutions, and where does the Pavia Project fit into this complex picture?
Language programs have always been subject to the vicissitudes of higher education. Italian is a great success story of education in Australia at all levels – it is one of the most taught languages at all levels. In some sense, you could say it is a quiet achiever. And quiet achievers have to work harder to maintain their ground – I think that is the lesson out of these recent developments. Some languages are seen to have more value than others, either for historical, economic, or cultural reasons. The Pavia Project is just one example of the innovative pedagogy that sets Italian studies apart and that could usefully be highlighted to bolster Italian in the languages landscape at Australian institutions.
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The widely criticised Job Ready Graduate Package spared languages from the exorbitant course hikes applied to most other humanities subjects. This hasn’t necessarily translated into an influx of university students into language programs. As many commentators have emphasised, students’ choice of studies isn’t reducible to an economic calculation. So how do you think universities and academics can inspire students to start and continue learning additional languages? In your time as a lecturer and teacher, what strategies have you found work best for inspiring students to stay engaged in language learning?
Students respond to passion. When a teacher is clearly invested in what they do and isn’t afraid to show it, this creates an environment of curiosity and intrigue which infects students.
In my 30 years in university teaching I can think of a number of students who have completely changed direction because they were taught by people who unashamedly demonstrated a deep engagement with different aspects of Italian studies.
Education should be transformative. Learning a language remakes you anew. When students see this in action and understand it, they often want it for themselves. This brings me back to the Pavia Project. Putting students in a position to be a language user with native speakers, gives them a taste of their future possibilities in Italian.