• Length:
    12 Weeks
  • Effort:
    3–5 hours per week
  • Price:

    FREE
    Add a Verified Certificate for $49 USD

  • Institution
    WellesleyX
  • Subject:
    Language
  • Level:
    Intermediate
  • Language:
    Italiano
  • Video Transcript:
    Italiano
  • Course Type:
    Self-paced on your time

Prerequisites

Secondary school Italian (high school): 1-2 years Italian
College, University: 1-2 semesters Italian

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About this course

Skip About this course

Benvenuti e Benvenute! (Welcome!)

In this language course, you will enhance your Italian language skills, enrich your vocabulary and expand your conversational skills. You will learn how to have exchanges on a variety of topics, and continue your immersion in the Italian culture through unique videos and interviews. You will also become more confident as you continue practicing your reading and writing skills.

This course offers a variety of tools that will help you learn in different ways:

  • Situational videos (called Ciak! , which means “clapperboard” in Italian): you will follow eight Italian students in their daily lives and interactions on our campus. What a great way to learn authentic conversational Italian!
  • Downloadable Podcasts: become a participant in each Ciak! video and practice Italian when and where you want on your portable device!
  • Grammar charts, with or without audio files: study and review grammar through concise, clear and downloadable pdf files, and practice pronunciation with our embedded audio files.
  • Short video lessons: as if in a real classroom, learn each new topic with the instructor’s direct guidance.
  • Video interviews: learn from various native speakers as they talk about different aspects of Italian culture.
  • Short “Letture” (readings): practice reading comprehension while learning about Italian culture.
  • Discussion board: your chance to communicate (in Italian!) with other students on a variety of suggested topics.
  • Ready to test your skills? Practice and review with a variety of self-correcting activities.

Italian culture is an integral part of this course. Through our interviews and readings you will learn about:

  • the origins of the “made in Italy” in fashion;
  • Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and poetry;
  • the Italian health care system;
  • shopping for clothes and food in Italy.

Whether you are a traditional, visual or auditory learner, you will find the tools that best fit your unique way to learn a foreign language.

After completing this course, continue learning Italian withItalian Language and Culture: Advanced.

Finally … buon lavoro e buon divertimento!

What you'll learn

Skip What you'll learn
  • Expand your conversational skills to have more in depth exchanges in a variety of situations about your everyday life, your current and future plans, your hobbies and interests.
  • Enhance Italian reading and writing skills.
  • Important grammatical structures such as reflexive verbs, the past absolute (“passato remoto”), relative pronouns, direct and indirect object pronouns, simple future, present and past conditional.
  • Italian culture, including fashion, art, poetry, healthcare, and how to shop for food and clothes in Italy.

Syllabus

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Benvenute e Benvenuti!

With Italian Language and Culture: Intermediate you will enhance your Italian language skills, enrich your vocabulary and expand your conversational skills. You will learn how to have exchanges on a variety of topics, and continue your immersion in the Italian culture through unique videos and interviews.

The course will stay open from February 11th, 2019 until December 31st, 2020: this means that you can cover the material at your own speed within this time frame.

Although we estimate that, studying 3-4 hours per week, it will take you about 8 weeks to complete the course, you are under no obligation to finish within this time.

You may decide to study towards a Verified Certificate of Completion ($49), or to learn for your personal enrichment and pleasure.

To receive a Verified Certificate of Completion you must obtain a final score of 60% on Tests. You may drop 2 Tests.

Course organization

The course consists of four Units. Each Unit is broken down in 6-7 lessons (5.1, 5.2, 5.3, etc.).

Each lesson presents its content in multiple ways. These can be viewed and studied in any order you prefer.

Below is a quick overview of the various components of each unit.

  • Ciak! videos : original videos shot on our campus with native and near native speakers of Italian. Each Ciak! video is followed by two downloadable Podcasts. These will be ideal for your on-the-go practice.
  • Grammar charts : grammar explanations, examples, and charts are available for review with audio files of each example and verb conjugation within the course, and can be downloaded in PDF file format.
  • Slide Shows with animation : grammar explanations with images and animation.
  • Videos (Slide Shows with Narration) : narrated grammar explanations.
  • Esercizi : online exercises with immediate feedback.
  • Vocaboli nuovi : new vocabulary lists are available as PDF files, slide show presentations, and videos with narration.
  • Discussione : creative writing prompts.
  • Lettura : readings delivered as PDF files, slide show presentations, and videos with narration.
  • Intervista : interview with a native speaker on a variety of cultural subjects.

Meet your instructors

Wellesley College
Daniela Bartalesi-Graf
Lecturer, Department of Italian Studies
Wellesley College

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Learner testimonials

“This course is really excellent, beautifully thought out. The grammar and the opportunity to repeat the contents of a lesson using different modalities really helps solidify the learning.”

"I really enjoy the course tremendously and appreciate the amount of work that went into making it fun, interactive and educational … a living experience."

"It is so well thought-through; I love that is real dialogue on campus, and the variety of steps to walk through and learn the material, from audio to transcripts to see translation, to vocab, to pronunciation, to grammar, to responding to see if you can recall, etc. Brilliant. Well done. Kudos. I love it."

Frequently asked questions

1. Can I enroll in more than one Italian course on edX? For example, can I enroll in the beginner and intermediate courses at the same time?

Yes, you may enroll in all three courses (beginner, intermediate, advanced) if you wish, and work towards a Verified Certificate of Completion for all or any of the three courses.

2.How can I determine the appropriate level (beginner, intermediate or advanced) to enroll in?

Generally speaking, if you have completed one or two years of Italian in high school, or one or two semesters at the university level, you should be ready for the intermediate course.

If you are not sure, we recommend that you enroll in the beginner or intermediate level first, explore the content of that course, and decide whether you feel you are sufficiently familiar with that level to enroll in the higher level.

3. Can I start at any level or must the three courses (beginner, intermediate, advanced) be taken consecutively?

You may start at any level. When you are finished with one level, you may or may not decide to enroll in the nextlevel.

4.Can I enroll in the intermediate level without completing the beginner level, or in the advanced levelwithout completing the intermediatelevel?

Yes, you may enroll and complete the courses in any order you wish.

5.Upon completion of the course, will I receive a Verified Certificate of completion?

You willreceive a Verified Certificate of Completion provided you meet the course requirements. You may decide to work towards aVerified Certificate of Completion at any point during the course by clicking "Upgrade to Verified" on your dashboard. The cost of the Certificate is $49.

Interested in this course for your Business or Team?

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