Sara Fruner

I have been teaching Italian at American college students as well as adults for the past eight years now, and I love sharing my beautiful language with them.
I believe learning a foreign language has to go beyond the necessary, essential grind work grammar calls for, and should become a stimulating immersive experience. My job — and joy — is therefore to share how the real Italy “off the books” looks like; how Italians talk, think, react, see. Including Idiomatic expressions, cultural realia, habits, petpeeves.
My ultimate aim as a professor is to make a student hungry and curious. To ignite the spark that entices them towards the discovery of a culture behind a language. To do so, my lessons usually hint at movies, music, literature and anecdotes that draw on all sorts of sources — history, geography, politics, fashion, literature, art, news, and my own life too. Fun escorts us graciously.
The more advanced a student is, the more receptive of the above they turn out to be. Beginners, however, are no less involved. My support with them is bigger, but the immersive strategy remains the same.
To put it in theoretical wording, I guess I could say that my pedagogy relies on a post-communicative approach, which enhances metacognitive skills and advocates for transcultural competency.
To put it simple: learning while enjoying the process.