WellesleyX: Italian1x Italian Language and Culture: Beginner (2021-2022)

ON THIS PAGE

1. Course Overview
2. Course Organization
3. Course Outline
4. Suggested 12-Week Schedule

COURSE OVERVIEW

Benvenute e Benvenuti!
Welcome!

Italian Language and Culture: Beginner (2021-2022) is an introductory course that teaches the four basic skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) in the context of major themes in Italian culture.

This course is a new iteration of our course Italian Language and Culture: Beginner (2019-2020). Below please see a summary of the new contents featured in this new version of that course:

- New sections "Now it's your turn (Ora tocca a te!)" at the end of each Ciak! video, Lettura (Reading), and Intervista (Interview). These new activities will help you practice your pronunciation, sentence formation and communicative skills.
- New comprehensive review exercises at the end of each lesson (i.e. 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, etc.).
- New version of all "Letture" (Readings) with annotations embedded in the text.

The course will be open on edX from February 22, 2021 until December 31, 2022.

Free access to the course will last for 12 weeks from the day you enroll. If you want to retain perpetual access to the course beyond the initial 12 weeks, you need to join the Verified Track ($49). 

When you join the Verified Track:

- You will gain access to all graded Tests.

- You will receive a Verified Certificate of Completion when you complete our course requirement, i.e. a cumulative score of 60% on your Progress Report (you may drop 2 Tests) by December 31, 2022, the day this course will be archived.

-You will retain perpetual access to all course materials beyond December 31, 2022. Please note that, after December 31, 2022, although you will retain access to all course materials, you will no longer be able to obtain a Verified Certificate of Completion.

For Verified Track learners

Suggested deadlines and due dates

Since this course is self-paced our tests do not have start or due dates, and you can submit tests scores at any time before the course end date (December 31, 2022).

The suggested deadlines or due dates on assignments are a new feature on edX designed to help learners plan and stay on-track.

 You can always change these due dates, by using the Dates tab on top of the Course page. Then, you will be able to submit. This will not affect any of the progress you have made in the course so far.

 Verified track learners can keep shifting their due dates up until the course date (December 31, 2022).

Green check marks

The green checkmarks you may see by a lesson have no effect on your Progress report: they are intended to be used as a visual indicator of course progress, and they do not have any impact on your grades.

As for why the green check marks do not appear by certain lessons, it is likely that a learner has not met the criteria for the check mark to appear. A course page gets a completion green check if the learner meets three requirements:

- Every problem on the page has been answered.
- Every video on the page in an edX video player component has been watched until the end.
- The particular page has been viewed for at least five seconds.

For example, if a learner didn't watch the Ciak! video till the very end in one lesson, they will not get a green check mark.

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COURSE ORGANIZATION

The course consists of four Units. Each Unit is broken down in 6-7 lessons (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 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. 

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: video interview with a native speaker on a variety of cultural subjects. 

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COURSE OUTLINE

Below is an outline of the material as it is presented on the edX platform.  

Unit	Lessons
Unit 1 Le città italiane e la piazza (Italian cities and the piazza)	1.1 Saluti e presentazioni (Greetings and introductions) 1.1 Test 1.2 Nomi: genere, singolare e plurale (Nouns: gender, singular and plural) 1.2 Test 1.3 Articoli indeterminativi e aggettivo “buono”  (Indefinite articles and adjective “buono”) 1.3 Test 1.4 Verbo “essere”, c’è, ci sono, articoli determinativi e aggettivo "bello" (Verb “to be”, there is, there are, definite articles and adjective “bello”) 1.4 Test 1.5 Verbo “avere” ed espressioni idiomatiche con avere (Verb “to have” and idiomatic expressions with “to have”) 1.5 Test 1.6 LETTURA: Le città italiane e la piazza (Reading: Italian cities and the piazza) 1.7 INTERVISTA con Lucia Toppino: La città di Alba (Interview with Lucia Toppino: The town of Alba)
Unit 2 I giovani, la famiglia e l'università (Young adults, the family and the university)	2.1 Aggettivi (Adjectives) 2.1 Test 2.2 Aggettivi e pronomi possessivi (Adjectives and possessive pronouns) 2.2 Test 2.3 Verbi in -are; domande, espressioni interrogative, alcuni avverbi (Verbs ending in –are; question formation, interrogative expressions, some adverbs) 2.3 Test 2.4 Verbi irregolari in -are: andare, dare, fare, stare (Irregular verbs ending in –are: to go, to give, to do/make, to be/stay) 2.4 Test 2.5 LETTURA: I giovani, la famiglia e l'università (Reading: Young adults, family and the university) 2.6 INTERVISTA con Beatrice, Elena e Mattia: L'università di Bologna (Interview with Beatrice, Elena and Mattia: The university of Bologna)
Unit 3 Attività, sport e vacanze (Activities, sports and vacation)	3.1 Verbi in -ere, -ire (Verbs ending in –ere, -ire) 3.1 Test 3.2 Verbi irregolari in –ere: dovere, potere, volere (Irregular verbs ending in –ere: must / to have to, can / to be able to, to want) 3.2 Test 3.3 Verbi irregolari: dire, uscire, venire (Irregular verbs: to say, to go out, to come) 3.3 Test 3.4 Conoscere e sapere, preposizioni articolate (To know, to be acquainted with and to know how, prepositions with definite articles) 3.4 Test 3.5 LETTURA: Attività, sport e vacanze (Reading: Activities, sports and vacation) 3.6 INTERVISTA con Emanuele Capoano: Le mie vacanze in Italia (Interview with Emanuele Capoano: My vacation in Italy) 3.7 INTERVISTA con Isabella Perricone: Il cinema italiano (Interview with Isabella Perricone: Italian cinema)
Unit 4 La cucina italiana (Italian cuisine)	4.1 Passato prossimo con essere e avere (Past simple with "to be" and "to have") 4.1 Test 4.2 Imperfetto e contrasto imperfetto / passato prossimo (Imperfect and contrast imperfect and past simple) 4.2 Test 4.3 Trapassato prossimo (Pluperfect) 4.3 Test 4.4 Espressioni negative (Negative expressions) 4.4 Test 4.5 LETTURA: Le abitudini alimentari in Italia (Reading: Eating habits in Italy) 4.6 INTERVISTA con Angelo Guida: La mia passione per la cucina (Interview with Angelo Guida: My passion for cooking)
Appendix Alfabeto, pronuncia, numeri, date, che ora è? che ore sono? (Alphabet, pronunciation, numbers, dates, telling time)	A.1 Alfabeto e pronuncia (Alphabet and pronunciation) A.2 Numeri (Numbers) A.3 Giorni della settimana, mesi, stagioni (Days of the week, months, seasons) A.4 Che ora è? Che ore sono? (Telling time)

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Suggested 12-week schedule

Week 1	1.1, 1.2, 1.3, A.1
Week 2	1.4, 1.5, 1.6, A.2
Week 3	1.7, 2.1, A.3
Week 4	2.2, A.4
Week 5	2.3, 2.4
Week 6	2.5, 2.6
Week 7	3.1, 3.2
Week 8	3.3, 3.4
Week 9	3.5, 3.6, 3.7
Week 10	4.1, 4.2
Week 11	4.3, 4.4
Week 12	4.5, 4.6

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