Course Syllabus

Course: ITAL 1010

Division: Humanities
Department: Foreign Languages
Title: Elementary Italian I

Semester Approved: Spring 2021
Five-Year Review Semester: Fall 2025
End Semester: Fall 2026

Catalog Description: This course provides an introduction to the Italian language and the cultures of Italian-speaking peoples. It is designed for students with no previous Italian study. During the course, students develop basic oral and listening communication skills by participating in activities that require them to use Italian in a variety of situations. As a result of developing these skills, they also acquire the ability to read and write Italian at a basic level. Students learn to communicate about topics that are most familiar to them (e.g., self, family, home, school, daily and recent activities), and they learn to appreciate ways of life different from their own. This course is interactive with a focus on learner participation and basic conversation practice in Italian.

General Education Requirements: Integrated Exploration (IE)
Semesters Offered: Fall
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 5; Lecture: 5; Lab: 0

Prerequisites: None

Corequisites: None


Justification: This course is a prerequisite for ITAL 1020, which satisfies the foreign language requirement for the associate of arts degree at Snow College. It is also a prerequisite for intermediate and advanced study of the language. Students are introduced to the language, cultures, and values of the Italian people, who are major contributors to Western art, thought, and culture. Learning Italian, particularly in combination with studies in other fields, such as art, music, philosophy, business, medicine, political science, social science, and technology can provide a valuable and employable life resource.

General Education Outcomes:
1: A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Student complete readings, discussions, and other assignments that require them to reflect on multiple cultures and analyze underlying similarities between cultures. They are required to explore the basis for cultural traditions, cultural traditions, customs, music, and art, and describe similarities and differences across cultures. Students demonstrate fundamental knowledge of Italian culture through in-class presentations that include research in specific cultural topics or practices and a description/demonstration of an aspect of the culture (e.g., cooking, music, games, dance, art, architecture).

2: A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Students are exposed to Italian language and culture through video, text, and audio sources on the Internet and through music. They will demonstrate their ability to read and interpret Italian text through structured online tasks, as well written media, and subsequently evaluate its meaning and cultural significance.

3: A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Students are introduced to perspectives different from their own and learn through readings, discussions, and their own research how people from other countries and regions of the world address problems in unique ways that meet their needs. These experiences allow students to draw on international perspectives when facing complex problems. Students are assessed during in-class discussions, on homework assignments, and on written quizzes and exams.

4: A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Students develop critical thinking skills as they learn Italian, where they must draw clues based on their own experience from the aural and visual input they receive. Students complete verbal and written assignments that demonstrate the ability to reason analytically and creatively evaluate the cultures, facts, and values of Italian-speaking peoples. Students are assessed during in-class discussions, on homework assignments, and on written quizzes and exams.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes:
1: Integrated Explorations: Students must work with partners at least three times a week to complete brief conversation exercises in Italian during class. The final project of the class requires them to write effectively and convincingly (in English) to share cultural knowledge and to reflect on how their experience has impacted their knowledge of and appreciation for the Italian language and / or Italian / italophone cultures. Integrated Explorations: Students must work with partners at least three times a week to complete brief conversation exercises in Italian during class. The final project of the class requires them to write effectively and convincingly (in English) to share cultural knowledge and to reflect on how their experience has impacted their knowledge of and appreciation for the Italian language and / or Italian / italophone cultures.


Student Learning Outcomes:
Interpretive Listening: Students will understand some everyday words, phrases, and questions about themselves, their personal experiences, and their surroundings, when people speak slowly and clearly or there is repetition.  Students will demonstrate interpretive listening skills as they respond to in-class practice exercises and interact with each other, as well as perform oral tasks and exams.

Interpretive Reading: Students will understand familiar words, phrases, and simple sentences. Students will demonstrate interpretive reading skills during in-class reading exercises, on homework assignments, and on written exams.

Interpersonal Speaking: Students will interact with help using words, phrases, and memorized expressions. They will be able to answer simple questions on very familiar topics.  Students will demonstrate interpersonal speaking skills by responding to in-class practice exercises and interaction, and performing oral tasks and exams.

Presentational Speaking: Students will provide information about themselves and their immediate surroundings using words, phrases, and memorized expressions. Students will demonstrate presentational speaking skills during in-class practice exercises and interaction, class presentations, and oral tasks and exams.

Presentational Writing: Students will provide some basic information on familiar topics in lists, phrases, and memorized expressions. Students will demonstrate presentational writing skills on written homework exercises as well as written quizzes and tests.

Interpersonal Satisfaction: Students will express satisfaction with their achieved level of communication skill.  Students will demonstrate their satisfaction with their level of interpersonal communication in Italian on their semester evaluations. (This outcome entails a program-level evaluation, not assessed for class credit.)

Cultural Opportunities: Students will seek opportunities to learn about and experience new cultures outside of class.  Students will report their extra-curricular efforts to experiences new cultures outside of class on the semester evaluations. (This outcome entails a program-level evaluation, not assessed for class credit.)

Cultural Understanding: Students will demonstrate a basic knowledge of cultural traditions, customs, and values in one or more Italian regions. Students will demonstrate cultural understanding during in-class presentations, discussions, and on exams.


Content:
Functions covered in Italian 1010 include but are not limited to: Basic interactions like greeting, asking and answering questions, describing people and things, expressing preferences, inviting, accepting, refusing, making purchases, giving directions, telling time, recounting past events, interpretation of basic or simplified texts (e.g., calendars, biographical information, menus, cultural information, poems/songs, maps, instructions, schedules)
Basic expressions and vocabulary (e.g., greetings, school, home, family, possessions, numbers, days, months, public buildings, food, weather, sports).
Basic grammar: nouns (gender and number), present and past (passato prossimo) verb tense, regular and irregular verb forms, reflexive verbs, adjectives (descriptive, demonstrative, possessive, and adjective agreement), pronouns (subject, reflexive, direct, indirect, possessive), prepositions (simple, articulated, adverbial).
Cultural practices and products of Italy (e.g., food, music, transportation, film, housing, media).
Cultural perspectives in Italy: regional identities, daily life of Italy.
This course addresses diverse issues overtly during cultural lessons (see topics above) and indirectly via images presented to the class during everyday lessons that represent Italian-speaking people from different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, etc.

Key Performance Indicators:
Participation, Oral Tasks, and Speaking Practice 5 to 20%

Homework 5 to 20%

Quizzes 10 to 50%

Written exams 25 to 50%

Semester project / presentation 10 to 20%


Representative Text and/or Supplies:
First-year Italian textbook packet chosen by department that covers course content listed above, such as Lazzarino’s Prego!, McGraw-Hill.


Pedagogy Statement:
This course integrates a variety of learning activities that are based in second-language (L2) acquisition research and communicative language pedagogy so that students receive multiple opportunities to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the L2 every day. Instructors encourage all students to participate in a variety of ways and to discuss teaching practices and share study strategies that are more/less helpful for their learning. Instructors use teaching materials that show people from a variety of backgrounds (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, ability, class, etc.) who use the L2 for interpersonal communication and artistic expression.

Instructional Mediums:
Lecture

Maximum Class Size: 25
Optimum Class Size: 18