NEH Summer Program for Teachers of Italian in Italy

Beginning today, 25 Italian-language teachers based in the U.S. will begin a four-week summer program in Rome. The National Summer Institute 2009, titled: "The Art of Teaching Italian through Italian Art in Rome, Italy" is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and is part of their Summer Seminars & Institutes for School Teachers program. The primary purpose of the Institute is to provide teachers of Italian, in elementary and secondary schools both public and private, with innovative tools and techniques on how to teach Italian language and culture through a content-based approach.

The content chosen for this Institute is Italian art and the principal Italian artists whose outstanding works can be found in the museums and monuments of Rome and Tuscany. Expert linguists from Italian universities specializing in the teaching of Italian as a foreign language will show how to use works of art in the teaching of Italian as a second language, and will discuss new teaching methodologies and changes in contemporary written and spoken Italian language.