Universita degli Studi di Urbino
Corsi Estivi de Lingua e Cultural Italiana per Stranieri

Italian Language (level determined by placement exam)
Taught by native speakers, classes are held every morning Monday through Friday in classes or not more than 20 people. The courses are divided into 8 levels: an elementary course with 4 levels, an intermediate course with 3 levels and an advanced course. The elementary course, level 1 is for absolute beginners; all other courses assume that students know the contents of the preceding level.

Elementary Course, Level 1

• phonetics
• regular and frequently used irregular verbs in the infinitive, simple present, imperative, and simple present perfect forms
• reflexive verbs
• nouns and adjectives (gender and number)
• definite and indefinite articles
• personal, demonstrative and interrogative pronouns
• possessive adjectives and pronouns
• cardinal numbers
• basic adverbs and prepositions
• affirmative
• vocabulary

Activities: listening and speaking, language lab

Elementary Course, Level 2

• phonetics
• regular, auxiliary and irregular verbs in the simple present perfect, and simple past and present forms
• nouns and adjectives (gender and number)
• definite and indefinite articles
• personal pronouns (tonic and atonic forms)
• demonstrative pronouns
• interrogative pronouns and adjectives
• basic and articulated adverbs and prepositions
• cardinal numbers
• affirmative, interrogatives and simple subordinate clauses
• vocabulary

Activities: listening and speaking, simple reading and writing, language lab

Elementary Course, Level 3

• phonetics
• regular, auxiliary and irregular verbs in the simple past, future, and conditional forms
• nouns and adjectives (gender and number)
• comparatives and superlatives
• definite and indefinite articles
• personal pronouns (tonic and atonic forms)
• demonstrative pronouns
• interrogative pronouns and adjectives
• the relative pronoun “che”
• basic and articulated adverbs and prepositions
• cardinal numbers
• affirmative and interrogative clauses and simple subordinate clauses (relative)
• vocabulary

Activities: listening and speaking, simple reading and writing, language lab

Elementary Course, Level 4

• phonetics
• regular and irregular verbs in the future, simple past, present perfect, past perfect in the indicative
• regular and irregular verbs in the present subjunctive
• transitive and intransitive verbs
• impersonal verbs
• use of the future
• expression of duration
• use of the subjunctive in volitive and optative clauses
• compound nouns and relative pronouns
• pronouns particles (ci, ne) and combined pronouns
• conjunctions to introduce dependent clauses
• structures of the optative clause
• if clauses
• the relative clause
• vocabulary

Activities: listening comprehension and verbal expression, reading of more complex texts, oral and written production of stories, language lab

Intermediate Course, Level 1

• regular and irregular verbs in the indicative and subjunctive forms
• indicative verbs (especially in the past tense)
• use of the subjunctive in volitive and optative clauses
• position of adjectives
• indefinite pronouns, pronoun particles (ci, ne), combined pronouns
• dependent clauses in the indicative form
• if clauses
• vocabulary

Activities: listening comprehension and oral production about complex everyday situations, interactive dialogues, debates, reading of various types of texts, writing on everyday life topics, language lab

Intermediate Course, Level 2

• modal verbs
• the passive and gerund
• present and past participles
• dependent clauses in the indicative and subjunctive form
• conditional clauses of the third type
• vocabulary

Activities: listening comprehension of all types of situations spoken at average speed; speaking about complex everyday situations and on technical subjects; interactive dialogues; debates; reading of technical texts related to everyday life; writing about complex situations; language lab

Intermediate Course, Level 3

• subordinate conjunctions with the indicative and subjunctive syntax of the sentence: relation between independent and dependent clauses
• indirect speech
• word formation (composition and derivation)
• vocabulary

Activities: listening comprehension of technical and literary subjects of average difficulty spoken at average speed; speaking, reading and writing exercises about more complex cultural topics; interactive dialogues; debates; language lab

Advanced Course

The course is divided into two parts:

1. Grammar and stylistics
   • grammar to improve use of complex and difficult syntactic structures
   • mechanisms of word formation (composition and derivation)
   • types of textual register
   • stylistic values of syntactic profiles e. everyday, formal and specialized vocabulary
2. Reading and analysis of texts
   • listening, reading, comprehension of texts (literary and cultural)
   • writing about literary and cultural topics
   • interactive dialogues and debates on known topics

Italian Culture

Elementary level:

• Easily understandable Italian films
• Afternoon activities to improve the language (word-play, nonsense verse, Italian gestures, dramatized conversation, introduction to terminology of Italian cooking)

Intermediate and Advanced levels:

Seminars, conferences, discussions will be held in the afternoon (4 afternoons a week, for a total of 60 hours of 60 minutes). Participants will need a fairly good knowledge of the Italian language. These cultural events are mandatory for students enrolled in the intermediate and advanced courses. Topics include:

• The Renaissance in Urbino
• 20th Century Italy
• Readings of poems and passages by various Italian authors
• Italian film series Summer 2008