Mapping a Sense of Place in the Italian Language Classroom

An important skill in today’s global economy is intercultural communicative citizenship (ICC), part of which is appreciation and encouragement to work toward social justice and equity. World language and culture courses represent the perfect context in which to develop or deepen students’ interdisciplinary ICC, since learning a new language means coming to appreciate, understand and participate in a new world vision expressed through that language. While languages link in important ways to the land – as indigenous peoples continue to teach us through land and language reclamation efforts – for many, a specific world vision can also be conjured through that language in any place in the world. Through a study of a language and “its” place(s), students become aware of a very modern tension: how “living in a language” today often is, but often cannot solely be, place-bound.

Since 2021 Dr. Marisa Trubiano, Associate Professor of Italian, and Dr. AJ Kelton, Director of the CHSS Digital Co-Lab, have been collaborating on a unique research project. The Digital CoLab team has created and manages a learning experience module on the free software program ArcGIS StoryMap, and each semester, together they measure how students use ArcGIS storymapping: 1) to map out their self-identities and experiences and to understand those of others; 2) to become more attuned to and appreciative of diverse transnational linguistic and cultural experiences and 3) to become effective digital story-mappers and -tellers in both the target language of Italian and in English. Drs. Trubiano and Kelton assess the changes in students’ reflections about new spaces in which languages and people merge, at a time when social isolation is more pronounced than ever.

This project also seeks to enrich the conversation around language learning technology. Effective digital storytelling and data visualization are skills that can enhance a student’s ICC by breaking down perceived barriers and understanding the dynamics of peoples’ and languacultures’ merging in virtual and physical piazze. Students enhance both their global fluency and their digital fluency through this mapping work.

Anonymous student surveys reveal that students’ appreciation for the linguistic diversity of their class generally increases due to this project and their peers’ presentations. In addition, their responses reflect a heightened awareness for links between languages, place, and individual and community identity formation.

Below are some StoryMaps from ITAL 102 section 01, Spring 2024. They are remarkable for their authors’ heartfelt stories and visual recreations of linguistic, cultural and personal experiences in specific places important to each of them.

Anxhelina Banushi: Il mio posto preferito: Sono nata in Albania e ci vado d’estate con la mia famiglia. Per me è il paese più magico d’Europa.

Liana Nativo: Un Luogo Importante: Santa Maria Di Castellabate, Italia

Melissa Motta Lopez: Un Luogo Importante: Colombia

Rosanna Hefter: Una storia di Florida