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Very visual learner;

Extrinsic motivation driven;

Appreciates structured activities, explicit teaching, clear instructions and modeling;

Not very comfortable with speaking as she feels judged;

Enjoys using a variety of resources;

Not used to collaboration with peers.

Figure 12 Collaborative Learning
From “High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS)”, by Department of Education and Training of the State of Victoria (DET), 2020, https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/practice/improve/Pages/hits.aspx.
Copyright [2020] by DET.

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Marcella is very comfortable in the Italian class as she feels admired but she is very self-conscious about her English level as soon as she leaves the Italian classroom. Sometimes she finds it hard to understand everything people are saying and she often self-corrects her mistakes while speaking, which are generally influenced by her Italian (i.e. ‘I’m Italian, from Verona. I have lived here since one year’).

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Marcella’s mother decided to enroll her in a Catholic school believing she would have received a better education. She chose a college with great facilities, a good arts program and that offers Italian, in order to keep nurturing Marcella’s love for her mother-tongue. Marcella studies Italian and is often involved in the lessons as a tutor for other students; this helped her socialize with Italian students and she made some friends.
Marcella still finds studying in an all-girls school slightly unsettling. She attends an EAL class two hours a week with other two students.

Figure 10 St. Columba’s College Logo
From “Homepage,” by St. Columba’s College, n.d., https://columba.vic.edu.au/.
Copyright [n.d.] by St. Columba’s College.

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Marcella moved to Essendon one year ago. She likes the area as there’s an important Italian community and she recently started working at the Trieste Social Club Melbourne on weekends. She is happy that she can easily find her favorite foods and she enjoys listening to Italian music and speaking Italian to customers.

Figure 9 Trieste Social Club Melbourne Logo
From “Homepage,” by Trieste Social Club Melbourne, 2021, http://www.triestesc.com/.
Copyright [2021] by Trieste Social Club Melbourne.

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Marcella studied English as a Second Language for nine years at school before moving to Australia.
Classes often consisted of reading from the text-book or listening to the teacher’s grammar explanation while copying notes from the blackboard. The lack of resources did not allow students to watch videos or complete many listening activities. The silence of the classroom was broken mainly when one student was asked to read from the text-book.
Students rarely practiced speaking or pronunciation, nevertheless they were often assessed on their listening and speaking skills in front of the rest of the class. This made learners feel insecure and uncomfortable.

Figure 8 English Pronunciation
From “MemeZila.com,” by MemeZila.com, n.d., https://memezila.com/Taught-though-thought-through-throughout-thorough-tough-Confused-screaming-meme-7349.
Copyright [n.d.] by MemeZila.com

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Schools in Italy are often repurposed old public buildings. The buildings were rarely ideated to be schools therefore they often lack appropriate learning spaces. For instance, Marcella’s Secondary School was originally a military hospital in Verona city centre, and it did not have a gym or laboratories.
In addition to this government schools in Italy often lack state funding and therefore have few to none resources. For instance, most schools do not have wi-fi access, school laptops or a school library.

Figure 7 Italian School
From “Scuola in Chiaro,” by Ministero dell’Istruzione, 2015, https://cercalatuascuola.istruzione.it/cercalatuascuola/istituti/VRPC020003/scipione-maffei/.
Copyright [2015] by Ministero dell’Istruzione.

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Marcella’s experience of schooling has been one where the attention of the students was always focused on the teacher and where lessons were delivered as lectures.
This was reflected in the classroom physical organization, with the teacher standing at the front of the class to deliver the content and the students sitting at individual desks organised in rows facing the teacher.
The percentage of teacher talk was always higher than students’ talk since in class students were supposed to listen and learn from the teacher and then apply what they learned in order to complete their assignments silently and by themselves.

Figure 6 Classroom
From “Unsplash,” by MChe Lee, 2020, https://unsplash.com/photos/PC91Jm1DlWA. In the public domain.

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Marcella attended co-educational government institutes from early childhood to Secondary school.
She has always been a good student excelling in humanities subjects.
She enjoys school and learning and she finds pride in being a good student with good marks.

Figure 5 Class
From “Unsplash,” by Javier Trueba, 2019,
https://unsplash.com/photos/iQPr1XkF5F0. In the public domain.

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Marcella only speaks about one specific friend, Marco, who is her age. They completed all their studies together and Marcella is very sad that they won’t graduate together from high-school. They keep in contact through WhatsApp, email, Zoom and letters.
Even though she doesn’t talk about any other friend in particular, in Italy Marcella was involved in many after-school activities as school finished at 1pm. She was part of an amateur theatre company, where she helped in the behind-the-scenes process, especially in writing and editing scripts and she talks about this experience fondly.

Figure 4 Theatre
From “Unsplash,” by Kyle Head, 2017, https://unsplash.com/photos/p6rNTdAPbuk.
In the public domain.

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Marcella was born in Verona, a town in the north-east of Italy where she lived all her life and that she refers to as ‘home’. Marcella is very proud of her hometown and often mentions its rich history and connection to Shakespeare, who chose Verona to set his famous play Romeo and Juliet.

Figure 2 Verona
From “Unsplash,” by Z S, 2018, https://unsplash.com/photos/ScjQN8hDEEY.
In the public domain.

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Marcella is 17 years old. She's Italian and she has lived all her life in Verona, Italy.
She moved to Melbourne with her mother, who is an academic and was offered a job at a university in Melbourne.
Marcella is very reserved but she easily opens up with people she feels comfortable with. She is very passionate about music and literature, in particular she enjoys reading and writing poetry.

Figure 1 Girl
From “Unsplash,” by Eliott Reyna, 2018, https://unsplash.com/photos/kcT-7cirBEw.
In the public domain.

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Marcella has a small family.
In Verona she lived with her mother and two grandparents on her mother’s side, who she now misses very much. Her father isn’t present in her life and she is an only child.
Her mum is an academic in the field of literature. She worked mainly at the University of Verona and is the reason Marcella moved to Australia as she is now working at a university in Melbourne. She is also an opera singer and she encourages her daughter to follow her passion for the arts.

Figure 3 Mother and Daughter in Kitchen
From “Pexels,” by Elly Fairytale, 2020, https://www.pexels.com/photo/mother-and-daughter-in-kitchen-3893535/. In the public domain.