ITA 101: Elementary Italian I
Course description
Our teaching method of Italian as a foreign language is essentially communicative and shares the following global goals, directed to each and every student:
● Develop awareness and capability to gradually and immediately access the language and its socio-cultural reality through documents derived from Italian life and through the practice of learning by interacting with the surrounding world;
● Promote the process of active acquisition in which lexicon and grammar feed each other reciprocally through a constant practice of the lexical and grammatical structures learned. The borders between grammatical and lexical spheres fade away and the priorities are defined by the actual communicative situation. The grammatical explanations are never proposed as “abstract rules” but they are activated as “essential aspects” of language life.
Learning objectives
These are the basic themes considered:
Identity: introduce yourself, your family, talking about your profession, your study;
Time: the hours, daily activities, habits;
Shopping: buying in markets and stores, ordering in a bar / restaurant
Your new city and your city back home: moving around town and communication with its inhabitants; describing a city; ask and give directions
Food and drink: their names, Italian habits and culture;
Weather