Course Title: Italian Language Skills for Graduate Studies
Course Number: ITL 010
Credits & hours: No credits, 30 hours
Pre/Co-Requisites: MA Program Enrollment
Min 10 students – Max 18 students
Course description
The course introduces students to important features of Italian language and culture through everyday communicative and social situations providing the basic structures in the four areas of language skills: listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing.
Some of the topics studied in the course include: introductions and greetings, structures and vocabulary for expressing basic personal information, express likes and dislikes, recount recent past actions, expressions and vocabulary for real-life situations, such as the bar, restaurant and shopping contexts. Although the focus of the course is to develop oral skills (speaking and listening comprehension) students will be able to read simple written texts in Italian and write short paragraphs on familiar topics.
Required Textbook (subject to change)
Entry Fees
Students are required to pay an extracurricular course fee of 500 Dollars or 400 Euros.
Course Learning Objectives
At the end of the course, students will be able to demonstrate:
- Speaking skills
Convey some spoken Italian through usage of familiar and memorized structures that require the interchange of simple and direct information and satisfy a very limited number of immediate needs. - Listening skills
Grasp the general meaning of oral statements and questions on familiar subjects conveyed through memorized structures with simple morphology and lexicon in order to be able to respond to these announcements and questions and engage in a brief dialogue. - Reading skills
Read and grasp the general meaning of sentences and very brief simple texts by recognizing memorized structures and vocabulary. - Writing skills
Produce two sentence-length texts with limited formulaic information by using elementary functions. - Cultural skills
Identify basic cultural rituals and practices in contemporary Italy.
Course Learning Activities
Listening skills
In-class listening activities: Students will listen to the instructor and to recorded texts the duration of which will be up to 100 words. Listening exercises include multiple choice or true/false type of questions formatted to assess their comprehension of the text.
Speaking skills
In-class oral activities: Students will practice oral proficiency singularly and in pairs. The type of practice exercises include: conversation between two students, monologues, role playing. Conversations, monologues and role-playing will be elicited by visual stimuli, texts, or questions from the instructor.
Reading skills
In-class activities: Students will read sentences and simple texts from the textbook and hand-out materials. They will recognize memorized structures and vocabulary. Reading exercises include multiple choice or true/false type of questions formatted to assess their comprehension of the text.
Writing skills
Homework assignments and in-class activities: Students will be asked to do grammar and vocabulary exercises by answering written questions.
Cultural skills
Homework and in-class activities: Students will read descriptive and interpretative texts on Italian cultural rituals and practices. They will discuss these issues in class with the teacher.
Assessment tools
Participation 10%
Test 20%
Homework 10%
Oral Proficiency Test 30%
Final Exam 30%
ATTENDANCE POLICY
AUR’s attendance policy requires that students attend a minimum of 70% of required course meetings in order to receive a passing grade. Failure to attend 70% of the course will result in an F grade. In order to maintain the academic integrity of the Master’s programs and to meet the learning objectives, students are expected to attend all classes, meet all deadlines and be present for examinations.
Absences will undermine the focus of class discussions and student interaction.
Absences may be excused in exceptional circumstances, on the permission of the instructor. Socially accepted standards of civility are expected in class.