Educazione interculturale in classe di italiano L2 tramite il cinema italiano contemporaneo: riflessioni teoriche e proposte didattiche in un contesto study abroad

The aim of this paper is to present film as a medium of intercultural education in Italian language teaching. Firstly, we illustrate why film is an excellent teaching and learning tool and how the visual context given by the movie can be used to facilitate intercultural learning. Film is a true reflection of the culture and the worldview of the society that produced it and it brings authentic and contextualized language into the classroom. We emphasize that intercultural leaning is particularly important in a study abroad context where students need to interact daily with people whose culture and attitudes are not familiar to them. Secondly, we show some obstacles teachers might face when selecting films and preparing activities and we share our experiences of using a recent Italian film, Noi e la Giulia (2015) to increase cultural knowledge and intercultural awareness.