ITALIAN LANGUAGE-BEGINNER/ELEMENTARY

The course is addressed to international incoming students of Ca’ Foscari.

Students will reach the beginner/elementary level of Italian language.

Upon successful completion of the module, students should be able to:

• Acquire an understanding of the Italian linguistic structures, sounds, pronunciation
• Demonstrate an understanding of the Italian linguistic situation
• Have some knowledge of the history of the Italian language
• Acquire a basic knowledge of terms and concepts used to describe the Italian linguistic repertoire

• provide basic information in Italian about themselves, their families, interests, likes and dislikes, and daily activities
• participate in a simple conversation on everyday topics (e.g.weather, meeting new people, school, shopping, etc.)
• read edited texts on familiar topics
• understand the main ideas, and pick out important information from authentic texts (e.g. menus, signs, train schedules, etc.)
• fill in forms requesting general information, write letters and postcards providing simple information
• provide general information about Italy and Venice (e.g. geography, weather, food, etc.)
• use and understand essential vocabulary related to everyday life (e.g. days of the week, colors,numbers, months, seasons, telling time, stores, family members, modes of transportation, etc.)
• produce Italian with enough grammatical accuracy and accurate pronunciation to be comprehensible to a native speaker of Italian

No specific prerequisites are expected for the course.

The course is composed by two modules:
• Introduction to Italian language (30 hs)
• Language Practice (50 hs)

In the module “Introduction to Italian Language” students will develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Italian and an understanding of Italian and Venetian language and culture.
The objective of the course “Introduction to Italian Language” is to bring the student closer to the Italian linguistics, in order to facilitate the study of the linguistic and grammatical characteristics of the language.
Besides the presentations of some specific structures of the Italian language, students will examine the principal strategies for the widening of metalinguistic competence, for the development of their vocabulary, for the comprehension of textual dimension, and to improve pronunciation, according to a linguistic perspective that does not renounce the comparative dimension between Italian, English, and their native languages.


In the module “language practice” students will learn and practice all aspects of a language, necessary to reach the A1/A2 level.

Materials available on Moodle.

The following are NOT mandatory readings, but they might prove useful to understand the subject matter
• Clivio, Gianrenzo P. & Danesi Marcel. 2000. The Sounds, forms, and uses of Italian. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Lepschy, Anna Laura & Lepschy Giulio. 1988. The Italian Language Today. London: Routledge.
• Maiden, M. 1995. A Linguistic History of Italian. London: Longman.
• Nocchi, S. 2017. New Italian Grammar in Practice. Alma Edizioni: Firenze.
• Tosi, Arturo. 2001. Language and society in a changing Italy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

N.B. In order to write the final exam, students are required to attend at least 80% of the lectures for both modules.

Module 1 - Introduction to Italian Language
1 MID-TERM TEST. It will address the material covered during the lessons. Open questions, short essay, multiple choice / fill in the gaps / match exercises. The test will be graded and will contribute to your final grade.
1 personal reflective blog
1 IN CLASS FINAL PAPER: see mid-term test

The exam consists of 3 mandatory parts
1. Language computer-based test – listening and reading comprehension, vocabulary and grammar
2. Oral presentation
3. Written activities


Students are required to take and pass all the parts of the grading system.

The module "Introduction to Italian language" consists of 12 lectures (one lecture per week).
The module "language practice" consists of 20 lectures (two lectures per week).

Attendance is mandatory (80%).

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development