Note: This course was formerly ITLN 101.

Perugia is a wonderful laboratory for learning the Italian language, and the structure of the Italian language program reflects this urban reality. This course introduces you to local routines and life in Perugia, where the opportunity to use the language abounds. This course also orients you to studying Italian in Italy, where the communicative approach with Italian only in the classroom is practiced in full.

The specific goals of the introductory course is to give you a basic lexicon to interact with everyday life, events, and activities of your new host country, while at the same time teaching you the key building blocks of Italian grammar. The central objectives are to provide you with the necessary tools by which you can engage—little by little—with the local community in a meaningful way, and to stimulate you to observe and reflect upon various aspects of the new culture surrounding you. Course activities will include exercises and homework assignments to develop and improve grammatical knowledge; reading and listening activities; and games, role-playing, and interviewing in both pairs and groups both within and outside the classroom.

Course Structure

• Four weeks of regularly scheduled classes. The class meets four days a week, Monday through Thursday.

Course Objectives
At the end of the semester, you should reach the level A2 of the Common European Framework in the four basic competencies: listening, speaking and interacting, reading, and writing. In practice, you will be able to:

• Recognize and use words and expressions of daily and common use;
• Participate in conversations at a basic level in everyday situations (talking about oneself, asking information, giving and receiving instructions, shopping, reading notices, etc.);
• Read short texts (menus, signs, announcements, timetables, notices, recipes, short newspaper articles, etc.);
• Write short passages on arguments of daily life and about one’s own direct experiences);
• Identify and use correctly basic grammatical units. These include: articles, nouns, adjectives, and their agreements; the present indicative of regular, irregular and reflexive verbs; the passato prossimo; direct pronouns; and the futuro semplice.

Course Materials

• “Allora” Textbook