Italian Beginners

Italian Beginners

The course will be aimed at English speakers who want/need to approach the italian language for the first time. It will also be useful to those who have made one or more “false starts”, and need to rebuild their learning foundations before moving further.

List of key topics to be covered:

Conversational:

– Progressive introduction of a basic Italian language in the teaching process.

– Various familiar situations: meeting people, restaurant, shop, travel, asking for the time, talking about the weather, etc…

– Talking about hobbies and interests

– Describe yourself and your family, your job, etc…

Related grammar coverage:

– General problems of pronunciation for English speakers. Alphabet (quickly).

– Articles (definite, indefinite), Genders

– Auxiliary verbs (essere, avere)

– Regular verbs: coniugazioni (-are, -ere, -ire), Indicativo Presente

– Questo, quello (this, that); questions: chi, cosa, come, quando, perchè (who, what, how, when, why)

– Numbers: Cardinali e Ordinali

– Most used Irregular verbs (always Present Tense)

– Eventual introduction to other tenses, subject to time availability

Proposed learning outcomes:

Students will benefit from a fresh and solid approach to the Italian language. They will challenge the next level with confidence and eagerness. My aim is to stretch the good effects of this course to its further development, so that their future teachers will find no gaps in their knowledge, enabling them to move quickly and safely on with the programme.

Outline of teaching methodologies:

It is my opinion that one of the most frequent reasons for the “drop-out effect” of students learning Italian is the lack of solidity of their first studies. As their learning proceeds they find themselves stuck in an ever-increasing confusion, with few chances of recovery. Thus my course will focus on a clear grammatical basis, with a lesson-by-lesson work of consolidation carried out through tests and exercises.

Finally, being aware of the density of such work, I will involve the class with topical lessons on interesting subjects (Italian history, geography, cultural aspects), all in a very slow and clearly spoken Italian. As soon as the students are ready, this will be followed by easily structured conversations. Great attention will be paid to pronunciation, traditionally one of the toughest challenges for English speakers. Song listening is an option, according to the timetable and structure availability.

Tutor:  Ciara Italiano