OVERVIEW
CEA CAPA Partner Institution: CEA Virtual Center
Location: Virtual, Virtual
Primary Subject Area: Italian Language & Literature
Instruction in: Italian
Course Code: ITA103
Transcript Source: TBD
Course Details: Level 100
Recommended Semester Credits: 4
Contact Hours: 60
Prerequisites: None. This course is designed for students who have very little or no previous knowledge of Italian.
DESCRIPTION
This course is designed for students who have little or no prior knowledge of Italian. The primary aim of the course is to develop the four basic skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) through a communicative, collaborative and cultural approach.
The course combines several integrated approaches aimed at developing your skills. Most in-class time, driven by the structure of the textbook and accompanying workbook, is devoted to speaking and practicing Italian through a combination of group-based and individual activities, focusing on grammatical structures, language functions and vocabulary. Lessons also focus on a wide range of contemporary cultural themes through the use varied materials such as newspaper articles, advertising material and short film clips. Onsite activities such as visits to markets and bars, and regular conversation exchanges with Italian students, will give you a unique chance to rapidly implement your linguistic development in real-life.
To give you further opportunities to develop your linguistic and intercultural skills in real local-community situations, the course comprises opportunities for conversation exchanges with Italian students studying English. Furthermore you will have the opportunity to socialise and study with your conversation partner on a regular basis throughout the rest of the semester as an immeasurable aid to your motivation, self-confidence and autonomy.
Special extra-curricular activities, organized by various local institutions, will be announced at the start of the semester and your instructor will help you identify which activities would be most useful for you. These, and other cultural components of the course, will also promote your knowledge of Italy and Italians, as you learn about Italian society, and thus learning Italian gives you a privileged opportunity to develop sensitivity towards cultural differences and to understand the ways in which culture and language interlock. In this sense you will be encouraged to exploit the value of these lessons not just as a useful aid to your progress in other courses at the GlobalCampus, but as a set of tools for unlocking a wide range of intercultural discoveries whilst living and studying abroad.
By the end of the course, you are expected to have mastered basic grammar and lexical structures, so that you'll be able to conduct a simple conversation and to write short and basic texts with some degree of competency. You will be able to speak about yourself and your family, to introduce people, to interact with the host community and to follow short and simple conversations.
Your class size never exceeds 15 students so that you have sufficient opportunities to practice your spoken Italian and receive personal attention from your instructor.
This course is taught in a virtual format by one of CEA's onsite instructors from across our 8 study center locations.