This second semester beginning-level Italian course will engage you in interactive communicative activities that provide rich exposure to the Italian language and culture(s). In this class, you will continue to develop and strengthen oral and written competence, as well as reading and comprehension skills, building your vocabulary and learning the grammar points necessary for more analytical conversations (using hypotheticals, the conditional, the subjunctive, and indirect discourse). Specifically, you will be able to: describe and narrate simple events in the past and in the future, make comparisons, express opinions and possibilities, and engage in discussions. You will explore six targeted urban areas in Italy while discussing cultural topics, telling stories about travel, and engaging with Italian literature, cinema, music, and pop culture. In the second half of the semester, you will watch an award-winning movie, La meglio gioventù, that will provide ample opportunities to discuss the history of modern Italy and to learn more about Italian politics and contemporary issues. Course work will include individual and in group presentations and short creative writing and oral assignments, based on authentic texts and artifacts. In-class assignments will be supplemented with individualized conversations with native speakers of Italian to further enhance your understanding of the diversity of cultural perspectives within Italian communities.
