This is an intensive beginner’s Italian language programme which involves grammar work, reading and writing skills, and oral and aural comprehension. The course is designed to enable students with no previous knowledge of Italian to reach a level of intermediate proficiency by the end of the year.

Study focuses on the four major language skills – reading, writing, speaking and listening – through classwork exercises and written work, use of video and audio material, and interaction with native speakers (including Italian Erasmus students hosted by the department). Teaching, learning and assessment are designed to enable you to achieve the learning outcomes via pair work, role play, and individual or group presentations.

While part of any class is likely to involve direct teaching, the emphasis is on student participation and you will be expected to actively take part in discussion and in tasks like small group presentations.

• Understand the principles of learning a foreign language intensively and organise his/her learning with guidance from the tutor.
• Have established a sound knowledge of and ability to handle the basic grammatical structures of Italian.
• Have gained confidence in their ability to express themselves in speech and writing on everyday matters in Italian.
• Extended and refined their vocabulary through reading and other work.
• Have developed an awareness of different ways of reading and interpreting Italian texts.
• Understand spoken and written Italian on everyday matters and topics of personal interest.
• Be able to identify, assess and make good use of appropriate reference materials (e.g. dictionaries; online resources; self-study tools).

Students have four hours of language per week, organised as follows:

3 hours of language study (grammar and development of reading and writing skills), 1 hour of oral/aural work.

Independent Learning:You will be expected to spend a significant amount of time studying outside the class. Materials will be provided on Learning Central which will help you develop your expertise as an independent language learner. You will be asked to consolidate your class work by learning vocabulary and linguistic structures, and by reading, watching and/or listening to material in Italian. You will also be expected to prepare exercises and activities for the class, to write assignments and generally begin to acquire a repertoire of effective language learning strategies.Independent Learning logbooks will be provided on Learning Central to help structure your language learning outside class time.

• An awareness of and sensitivity to a foreign culture.
• Independent study skills:  active reflection on learning processes and preferences so as to independently develop appropriate strategies and relevant skills to ensure linguistic progression.
• The ability to work productively with others as part of a team.
• Oral and Audio-visual Presentation and public speaking skills.
• Advanced IT skills

Summative Assessment

Two 45-minute Grammar Tests Sem A: Test 1 week 7

(20% of unit mark) Sem S: Test 2 week 7

Translation – 2 x marked assignment Sem A: week 9

(10% of unit mark)  Sem S: week 9

Language Writing Tasks – 2 x marked assignment

(10% of unit mark) Sem A: week 11, Sem S: week 11, 

Aural Exam  Sem S: week 10

(10% of unit mark)

Oral Exam Sem S: Details to be confirmed

(10% of unit mark)

Sessional Exam  Spring exam period                  

(40% of unit mark)

The opportunity for reassessment in this module

Students who fail the overall module will be given the opportunity to resit a synoptic exam during the summer resit period. The resit exam will consist of one 2-hour paper which will follow the exact format of the end of year exam. The maximum grade awarded for this exam is 40%. Failure to pass the module and the resit exam will prevent the student from progressing to his/her year abroad.

The content will cover all those points of Italian grammar and vocabulary which will allow you to describe events and to express needs, feelings and opinion in the presents and in the past tenses.

Please see Background Reading List for an indicative list.

Indicative Reading and Resource List:

Set Texts

Grammar:

Lazzarino, G, Prego: An Invitation to Italian (8^th edition)

Reading Skills:

Materials to be made available by department

Conversation:

Materials to be made available by department

Recommended Texts

The following texts are recommended to complement contact time activities and for revision.

Oxford/Paravia Italian Dictionary

Boscolo, Clelia Upgrade your Italian (Hodder, 2005)

Nocchi, S. Italian Grammar in Practice, Alma, 2002

Listening

You will be also asked to listen to the following stories provided on Learning Centralaccording to a prescheduled timetable as set in your textbook:

Il Signor Rigoni

Radio Lina