Italian Beginners (full syllabus)

Taught over 30 weekly online evening classes, you’ll develop essential speaking, listening, reading and writing skills – helping you to communicate with confidence in a wide range of real-world scenarios.

When you study Italian on this course we’ll start by teaching you simple vocabulary so you can introduce yourself and others, talk about your profession and describe your weekly routine. You’ll learn how to count and pronounce the alphabet correctly.

You’ll begin to understand basic rules of grammar, such as personal pronouns, and definite and indefinite articles. As you progress throughout the year, you’ll learn to describe events, using the past tense, and learn about Italian culture and way of life.

By learning Italian for beginners we follow best practice, set out by the Common European Framework Reference of language learning (CEFR). You will be communicating at CEFR A1 by the end of the course.

Who is it for?

As an introduction to Italian this course is ideal for total beginners who want a complete understanding of beginners Italian.

Timetable

The full beginners syllabus includes 60 hours of learning and is taught across three terms, starting in October and finishing in July.

October – December (part 1)

One evening per week (two-hour lessons) for ten consecutive weeks.

Christmas Break

January – March (part 2)

One evening per week (two-hour lessons) for ten consecutive weeks.

Easter Break

April/May – July (part 3)

One evening per week (two-hour lessons) for ten consecutive weeks.

Missed the October start date? We have other beginners options in January or in April/May.

Benefits

• Perfect Italian for beginners over 30 weeks. Learn parts 1-3 at the lowest price by enrolling on the full year.
• Delivered by a qualified language tutor.
• Gain an official City St George's, University of London certificate on completion

Throughout the year, you’ll learn to

• introduce yourself and talk about your family, profession, hobbies and weekly routine
• master the alphabet and Italian pronunciation
• use numbers, tell the time
• order food in a bar or restaurant
• buy a ticket
• arrange a meeting
• buy objects and clothes
• talk about and describe past events
• ask questions about past events.

Grammatical structures

• definite and indefinite article
• gender and number of adjectives and nouns
• personal pronouns
• indefinite articles, there is/there are
• prepositions
• combined prepositions
• preposition and adverb of place
• duration form da
• introduction of the past tense
• verbs taking the auxiliary essere and verbs taking avere.

You will be awarded an official City St George's, University of London certificate on completion of the course if you attend over 70 per cent of the classes. The course is not formally accredited.

Assessment

Any assessment will be informal to help you evaluate your own progress.

Teaching

Learning is designed to be fun and interactive.

Listening to audio clips and watching videos are an important element in our lessons. More comprehensive grammar exercises and reading texts are generally set as homework.

We use a mix of classroom activities to check your understanding, including:

• role-playing
• classroom discussion
• pair and group work
• work on pronunciation and intonation
• grammar in context.

Your progress will be assessed on an on-going basis through homework and performance in class. You will receive feedback from your tutor throughout the course.

Start here if you have never learned Italian before.

Have a little experience? Skip the very basics and enrol onto part 2 or part 3.

English requirements

You will need a good level of spoken and written English to enrol on this course.