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2022/2023

Foreign language I (Italian)

Code: 103572 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2502758 Humanities FB 1 1

Contact

Name:
Eduard Vilella Morato
Email:
eduard.vilella@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
(ita)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Teachers

Eduard Vilella Morato
Nicola Di Nino

Prerequisites

Beginner instrumental course to Italian language. No prerequisites. This course is not conceived for native and/or students with advanced knowledge of Italian.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The subject Foreign Language I (Italian) aims to provide the students with a grounding on the essential aspects of the current Italian language.

By successfully completing this course, students will acquire an elementary competence in the Italian language (quite similar to a CEFR’s A1), both in its communicative aspects and in those related to morphological, phonetic, lexical, and grammatical aspects.

Competences

  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Ability to maintain an appropriate conversation.
  2. Carrying out oral presentations using an appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
  3. Communicating in oral and written form in the studied language, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
  4. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  5. Interpreting the meaning of unknown words thanks to its context.
  6. Making predictions and inferences about the content of a text.
  7. Producing a written text that is grammatically and lexically correct.
  8. Producing an oral text that is grammatically and lexically correct.

Content

1. Introduction. Familiarization with the Italian language and culture. The phonetic system, the alphabet. Communication in the classroom

2. Presentations. Present / present. Formal / informal registration. To ask for / to provide general information. adjectives of origin, indicative regular and irregular verb’s present tense.

3. Descriptions. Lexicon and pragmatic structures related to descriptions of spaces. Daily communicative interactions in society (public institutions, commerce, catering, timetables). Numerals, c'è / ci sono,  articles, prepositions.

4. Daily life. How to describe usual activities and their frequency. How to talk and discuss about them. Work: basic situations related to the world of work. Lexicon and pragmatic structures. Irregular present tense, articles, prepositions, adverbs.

5. Description of places, itineraries, indications. Giving and asking for spatial information. Dialogues, lexicon and pragmatic structures. The family. Describing and talking about the own family. Constructions with possessive. Panoramic on present tense, possessive and articles, adverbs.

6. About the past. Lexicon and pragmatic structures related to the description of past events. The perfect and imperfect pasts: use, auxiliaries, concordance, particularities.

7. Oral expression and comprehension. Basic phonetics of Italian.

Methodology

The subject Modern Language I (Italian) is essentially practical. The training activities will emphasize the active participation of the students in the acquisition of the planned skills.

 

In general terms, learning activities are organised as follows:

 

Directed activities:

- Master class with ICT support and collective discussion

- Practice of written and oral expression in Italian language

- Analysis of grammatical phenomena

- Comprehensive reading of texts

Supervised activities:

-Individual and group exercises of different kinds, both written and oral.

- Class exchanges (teacher-student, student-student)

- Grammar, written / oral expression and written / oral comprehension tests

-Autonomous activities: exercises on the Student’s book and Moodle plattform, readings, writing, autonomous study and research.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Assesment: partial and final examinations 10 0.4 7, 8, 3, 4, 5, 1, 6, 2
Classes with active participation 35 1.4
Tutorials 10 0.4
Type: Supervised      
Oral practice, simulated communicative situations, writing, debates 25 1
Type: Autonomous      
Grammar exercises, questionnaires, writing of texts related to the studied topics, study of the manual 50 2

Assessment

The assessment is continuous (100%) and it is based on the following sections:

 -Continuous evaluation (100% of the final grade):

a) Test 1 (40%).

b) Test 2 (40%).

c) Active participation in class, understanding activities, written and oral expression (= 15%).

d) Participation to the oral and reading reinforcement seminar given by Prof. Buovolo (= 5%).

 -All Italian language skills will be assessed: grammar, oral, and written comprehension, spoken and written expression.

- Students are allowed to retake activities they have not passed only if they have already taken at least 2/3 of the overall activities, and they have an average grade of at least 3.5.

- To receive the final grade, it is required to pass all the components subject to re-assessment.

- Students will receive a grade of “Not Evaluable” if s/he has not submitted more than 30% of the graded activities.

- In-class activities are excluded from re-evaluation.

-The Participation grade is based on the active role in doing textbook activities/assignments in class, the exercises proposed by the professor in the Campus Virtual and in the online workbook. It may consider as well the attendance to cultural activities eventually proposed by the professor.

- Re-assessment will consist of a written exam.

- Before posting the final grades, and prior to record them on the transcripts, the professor will provide date and time for the written re-take exam.

- Students are fully responsible for checking all their graded activities/exams.

- If a student commits any irregularity that lead to a significant variation of the grade in any activity, s/he will be given zero for this activity regardless of any disciplinary process that may follow up. In the event of several irregularities, the student will be given zero as final grade for the subject.

- In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be taken online through the UAB online tools (original grade weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities, and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these remote tools, and/orwill offer feasible alternatives.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Active participation in class, written and oral comprehension and expression activities 15 % 10 0.4 7, 8, 3, 4, 5, 1, 6, 2
Participation in the rotating seminar of oral and reading reinforcement held by prof. Donatella Buovolo 5 % 4 0.16 7, 8, 3, 4, 5, 1, 6, 2
Test 1 40% 3 0.12 7, 8, 3, 4, 5, 1, 6, 2
Test 2 40% 3 0.12 7, 8, 3, 4, 5, 1, 6, 2

Bibliography

Textbook:

T. Marin, P. Diadori, Via del Corso. A1, Roma, Edilingua, 2017

At the beginning of the course, the teacher will indicate and make available to the students the supplementary materials for the classes.

Throughout the course the teacher will indicate the compulsory reading texts.

As a complement you can consult grammars such as Nocchi's and Carrera Díaz's, written in Spanish and addressed to a Spanish public (with attention to the comparison of languages and contrasting phenomena, etc.). Three bilingual good dictionaries are Arqués (for Catalan) and Arqués-Padoan and Calvo-Giordano (for Spanish).

 


- R. Arqués, Diccionari català-italià italià-català. Barcelona, Enciclopèdia Catalana, 1992 i 2002.

- R. Arqués/ A. Padoan, Grande Dizionario di Spagnolo-Italiano / Italiano-spagnolo, 2 ed, aggionata, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2020.

- R. Arqués - A. Padoan, Ágil. Dizionario italiano-spagnolo. Bologna, Zanichelli, 2014

- C. Calvo Rigual; A. Giordano, Diccionario italiano italiano-español, español-italiano, Barcelona Herder 2001.

- M. Carrera Díaz,Manual de gramática italiana , Barcelona, Ariel, 1991.

- S. Nocchi, Nuova grammatica pratica della lingua italiana, Alma, 2012.

- N. Zingarelli, Vocabolario della lingua italiana. Minor, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2010.

Software

No particular software is required, except for the most common Office tools (i. e. word processor, etc.,) email account, an updated browser, MS Teams for online sessions if needed.