This ten-week intensive language course is equivalent to two semesters of university level beginning language instruction. Taught in Italian from the very first day, the workshop emphasizes competency in both spoken and written Italian through functional communicative activities and creative exercises. Students work with the director and two instructors each day Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon covering basic grammar, doing drill exercises and practicing everyday conversation in Italian. Cultural materials from contemporary Italy, including film and music, supplement linguistic instruction and provide students with a glimpse of the richness of Italian culture. While this is an intensive course and requires a full-time investment, there are plenty of opportunities for fun; a mid-summer picnic and a field trip to San Francisco's North Beach ("Little Italy") provide further opportunities to use recently acquired linguistic skills in social settings and real life situations. Students will emerge from the course well-prepared to continue more advanced study of Italian language and culture.
"I believe that a foreign language is most successfully acquired if we are able to create a classroom situation in which the focus of instruction is on meaning rather than form," the experienced coordinator and administrator who supervises this course, Armando DiCarlo, has written. Di Carlo is well-known nationally for his contributions to developing curriculum and new pedagogical methods for teaching Italian; the textbook he authored has been republished in many editions and is used at universities across the country.
