Rome, Italy - Course Descriptions - Beginning Italian Language

Course Information

Contact Hours and Credits

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Full Description

Objectives:

Open to students with no previous training in Italian, the course is designed to provide communicative ability in order satisfy a limited number of immediate needs and activities necessary for survival in the target language culture, such as basic personal and accommodation information, exchange of greetings and simple actions in the past. Major emphasis is given to pronunciation, basic vocabulary and syntax, and to speaking ability and listening comprehension.

Learning goals: Upon completing this course, students will possess the ability to:

• satisfy a very limited number of immediate needs
• understand and convey some spoken Italian through the knowledge and usage of familiar and memorized structures, on the most common features of daily life that require the interchange of simple and direct information.
• understand the general meaning of oral announcements and brief texts on familiar subjects with simple morphology and lexicon
• produce one-paragraph texts with limited formulaic information by using elementary functions.

Assessment Tools

Listening

• In-class listening activities students will listen to the instructor and to recorded texts the duration of which will be at least 250 words. Students will have to answer (orally and in writing) to an increasing number of questions that test their comprehension of what has been heard.

Speaking

• In-class oral activities and exams: Students will be examined singularly and in pairs. The type of tests will be: conversation between the two students, monologues, role playing. The multiplicity of situations and the request to express personal opinions will increase from elementary level to advanced level. Conversations, monologues and role playing will be elicited by visual stimuli, texts, or questions from the instructor.

Reading

• In-class activities and exams: Students will have to read an increasing number of texts of increasing length, complexity and of different general They will have to answer in writing to several questions that test their comprehension of what they have read.

Writing

• Homework assignments and exams: Students will have to answer written questions and produce texts of increasing length, formality and complexity, on topics of every day life.

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Grammar: Introducing oneself. Basic expressions.
Lexicon: Numbers.
Role Play: Talk about yourself.
Grammar: Days of the week, months, seasons. alphabet pronunciation. Nouns: gender and number. The verb essere.
Lexicon: The City
Role Play: What’s in your city?

WEEK 2

Grammar: Indefinite articles. C’è, ci sono. Introduction to adjectives.
Lexicon: Introduction of objects. Che cos’è? (What’s this?)
Role play: What do you have in Italy that you do not have in your country?
Grammar: Definite articles. The verb avere. Interrogative expressions.
Lexicon: Descriptions. The house.
Role play: Describe your house and town.

WEEK 3

Grammar: Buono e bello. Adjectives. Construction of the phrase.
Lexicon: Parts of the body
Role play: Describe yourself, your roommate or your boyfriend/girlfriend.
Grammar: Review of nouns, articles and adjectives. Present indicative of the verbs of the first conjugation (-are). Idiomatic expressions with avere. Present indicative of fare (to do) and andare (to go).
Lexicon: School and subjects of study.
Role play: Conversation between two students in front of the library.

WEEK 4

Quiz 1
Grammar: Prepositions. Present indicative of the verbs of the second and third conjugation (-ere and –ire). General review of the three conjugations. Progressive form of stare + gerund.
Lexicon: Meals and dishes.
Role play: Conversation at the restaurant.

WEEK 5

Grammar: Partitives: alcuni, qualche, un po’ di, molto, poco, tutto, ogni. Adverbial prepositions: avanti, dietro, sopra, sotto, fuori, dentro. Irregular verbs in –are. Direct object pronouns: lo, la, li, le.
Lexicon: The telephone.
Role play: A telephone conversation.
Grammar: Present indicative of irregular verbs in –ere: bere, dovere, potere, volere, sapere, and conoscere. Present indicative of irregular verbs in –ire: dire, venire, and uscire.
Lexicon: Family and relations.
Role play: Interview your classmate

WEEK 6

Grammar: Review of verbs. Possessive adjectives.
Lexicon: The genealogical tree.
Role play: Talk about your family.
Midterm Exam

WEEK 7

Grammar: Passato Prossimo with essere and avere.
Lexicon: Arrivals and departures.
Role play: Writing postcards or letters
Grammar: Passato prossimo continued.
Lexicon: Talking about past actions.
Role play: Students meet and tell about their week-ends and their trips.

WEEK 8

Review
Quiz 2

WEEK 9

Grammar: Agreement of the past participle and the direct object pronouns. The time.
Lexicon: Italian regions and places
Role play: Conversation at the train station.
Grammar: Uses of di, a, in, da and per. Present tense of the reflexive and reciprocal verbs.
Lexicon: Hotel and bank.
Role play: Making reservations for a hotel.

WEEK 10

Review
Quiz 3

WEEK 11

Film

WEEK 12

Grammar: General review
Lexicon: General review
Role play: Exchange of opinions about experience in Rome.

WEEK 13

ORAL EXAM

WEEK 14

Final Exam

Recommended Text(s)

C. Federici and C. Riga, Ciao! Harcourt Brace, Fifth Edition 2003
Ciao! Student Activities Manual, Fifth Edition, 2003

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