Learning stories

Cooking up an edible Italian lesson

On the wall, there's a list of Italian verbs in bright colours: taglia  - to cut; grata - to grate; scalda - to fry. Labels on the cupboards and drawers sport pictures of items with their Italian names. Students are looking a little closer at their laminated recipe cards - they're not just making fettucine con una salsa di pomodoro, salsiccia e finicchio - they're making it in Italian, from recipes translated by the Specialist and the Italian teacher at the school. There's the occasional flip to the vocabulary lists on the back, and there are English versions around, but this is going to be an Italian feast, and the flavour of Italian is in the air as well as on the stove.

North Melbourne Primary School planned this lesson as the culmination of nearly a term of studying verbs and the ways they operate in sentences. The learning translates to English language awareness as much to Italian; before the class many of us admit that it was only when we learned another language that we started to understand the grammar of our own.

The Kitchen Specialist, Italian teacher and Program Coordinator planned this session together, choosing the menu, arranging to translate the recipes, writing up the menu and coaching one of the young cooks so that he reads it to us at the beginning of the session, in a very credible accent. Not all the volunteers speak Italian, but they are willing and happy to give it a go with a smiling ‘va bene!' as the pasta sheets roll out of the machine in perfect tagliatelle strips.

Learning another language in the kitchen can be a hands-on way to get familiar with vocabulary (the verb lists, cupboard labels, and signs decorating the bountiful produce table). Students gain exposure to the spoken language through reading aloud the menu, through the Kitchen Specialist's introduction in Italian (smiles on the faces of lots of the kids at this novel way of starting their class) and interact with adults other than their language teacher. Volunteers can add to the learning (by no means all of them spoke Italian fluently, but they were willing to give it a go) -- and of course, there's plenty to learn about cultural foods, ways of cooking, and recognising the history of immigration to Australia. For this class with such varied heritage, different native languages spoken at home, and different cooking styles of their own cultures, this is an extension as well as a validation of the place of all migrant cultures in the kitchen and on the table.