Professor
brings Italy to CSULB
Education:
Italian professor utilizes her heritage
to teach students about Italy.
By
Kristen Wooley
Daily Forty Niner
Although
the diversity of the Cal State Long Beach
campus is evident, the diversity of the
faculty can sometimes go overlooked. The
campus is fortunate to have professors like
Teresa Fiore, 33, a native of Italy, because
diversity among a society starts with the
diversity of education. Fiore is a new addition
to the CSULB staff, but has already received
great recognition.
"I
observed her in one of her classes today
and she's fabulous," said Claire Martin,
romance German Russian languages and literature
department chairwoman. "She is one
of those faculty members that you are so
glad you hired."
Fiore
teaches beginning and upper divisions of
the Italian language, as well as a class
in Italian American culture. One of the
most frustrating things that Fiore said
about trying to teach a foreign language
is the mind frame that students have about
the way that language works. Talking to
a high school, she said, she found the teacher
had been told not to teach grammar in the
classroom. The students were just supposed
to read and get the gist of it.
"The
American system at the high school level
doesn't give students a consciousness of
their own language so it's harder to understand
other languages," Fiore said.
Living
in Sicily until 1995, Fiore admits to feeling
very comfortable teaching her native language.
In Italy, she said, the students study Latin
for several years in school. They are trained
in translation and from the dictionary,
which makes most people very comfortable
with the Italian language, and then they
can move on to other languages.
Implemented
this semester, CSULB now offers a bachelor's
degree in Italian and is working on creating
a single subject teaching credential for
Italian. Fiore's work extends into the Italian
community in places such as San Pedro and
she works with the George L. Graziadio Center
for Italian Studies and the Italian Institute
in LA.
Fiore
had studied English for many years before
coming to the United States but claims that
full immersion into the culture and language
was what really helped her. There are still
many differences, she admits, from her homeland
though.
"Pop
culture can really bring people together,
but it can also alienate them," Fiore
said. "I am not a TV person, and I
didn't grow up hearing the same childhood
stories that American children did, so sometimes
it is hard to relate to students in that
way."
Fiore
laughs saying she never had so many choices
of what kind of bread she wanted to make
toast with, and the freeway systems are
incredible in her opinion.
"Everything
looks so close, but is really far away.
You can really become dwarfed," she
said.
Considering
the fact that she has the advantage to teach
a language that comes so naturally to her,
as well as a culture, she said, she doesn't
want the students to believe what she teaches
can represent the entire Italian population.
"I
don't want the emphasis to be on me,"
she said, "I would like to be a channel."
|
