Angela Di Pasquale
Tutor: French: Level 4 Conversation and Language
Angela was born in Melbourne to Italian immigrants who arrived in the post-war period of the mid-1950s. She is a passionate student of foreign languages - at secondary school she studied French, German and Italian, which she still pursues.
Attending the University of Melbourne, she continued studying Italian and French, as well as psychology. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts, she completed a Diploma in Education at Monash University, and commenced her language teaching career in state secondary schools. She also spent four years working as an Italian consultant. Subsequently, Angela changed career paths. She worked as a real estate auctioneer and sales consultant for five years, then returned to teaching at Melbourne Girls Grammar for 14 years as a language teacher, accompanying students on international exchanges to Verona and Bordeaux. It was in the latter years of this period that she completed further postgraduate studies, this time gaining a diploma in counselling. She then worked as a counsellor in private practice for three years, until she was awarded a scholarship to complete doctoral research at RMIT.
Her teaching, language and counselling skills proved invaluable in the completion of her PhD. Her thesis focused on the Italians who worked during the 1950s and '60s in W.A. at the Wittenoom asbestos mine, and the knowledge regarding the hazards of asbestos exposure held by governments and the Wittenoom mine owner, CSR.
Angela also worked at Distance Education, Victorian School of Languages, teaching Italian and French. She travelled to Montpellier, France, to stay with French friends to develop her fluency in the French language. Recently, she changed her lifestyle, now spending her time following many varied interests in languages, art, music - teaching herself to play the piano and refine her guitar playing - and writing.
A fervent Francophile, she is looking forward to nurturing the desire of her students to extend their understanding of how the French language works, and build their oral skills.
