ITA 102: Elementary Italian II
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
Upon completion of Italian 102, students should be able to:
use several basic structures of Italian grammar in speaking and writing
express personal needs, likes and dislikes in a variety of situations (greetings, introductions, obtaining and discussing food and lodging, carrying out simple transactions, transportation)
describe themselves and their family, travels and routine, food and eating habits
be informed on Italian history, culture, geography as structured in the course
read and comprehend simple written texts
comprehend simple conversational Italian
write short compositions