ITALIAN 102 Monica Liscio Gordon

Section 204 Office: BuTo 827

2023W2 [email protected]

COURSE OF ITALIAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE – CEFR LEVEL A1 (BEGINNER)

Class Time: martedì/giovedì 12:30-14:00 Class Location: Buchanan B 318

Office Hours: Tuesday 11:30-12:30 and by appointment Office Location: Buchanan Tower 827

Course Description
Introduction to the essentials of Italian vocabulary, expressions, grammar and cultural life. Focus on
developing listening, reading, speaking and writing skills for everyday situations in the present and past
tenses. Aligned with CEFR level A1 objectives. Students reach level A1 at the end of ITAL 102.
For more information on CERF, please go to: https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-
reference-languages/level-descriptions (Links to an external site.)

Prerequisite
The prerequisite for Italian 102 is the completion of Italian 101 or permission from the undergraduate Italian
advisor. Please contact Dr. Luisa Canuto, Language Program Director (Italian), at [email protected], if
unsure of which course is most appropriate to your language level.

Italian 102 is the second part of the full sequence of Italian language and culture courses
(http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/courses.cfm?page=name&code=ITAL). The course is designed for
prospective minors as well as for those simply seeking first exposure to the language. Check the following sites for
more details on the UBC Italian programs as well as other opportunities such as our study-abroad program and
scholarship opportunities:
• Minor: http://fhis.ubc.ca/undergraduate-italian-program/minor-in-italian/;
• Prizes and scholarships for students minoring in Italian or those of Italian descent:
https://fhis.ubc.ca/undergraduate/funding/
• Study abroad opportunities (to be updated in September): https://students.ubc.ca/career/international-
experiences/global-seminars
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Learning Materials
a. The required textbook for this course is the following: Al dente 1 (Birello & Vilasagra, 2017).
The ITAL 102 course will cover the second half of Al dente 1: Units 5-8. We expect to use the digital
version of this book, which is hosted on the web-based learning platform BlinkLearning.
b. Course hub on Canvas.

You can purchase Al dente 1 and access all of its online resources by choosing one of the following 2 options:
1. Purchase the edition PREMIUM of this textbook through the UBC Bookstore or your preferred
book provider. The edition comes with a paper copy of the book plus an access code for the digital e-
book on Blinklearning.
2. Buy the digital e-book ONLY.
Important Note: To access our virtual classroom on BlinkLearning, you must also enter the classroom ID
code I provide in Canvas (Announcements).

Learning Goals
The purpose of this course is to help you:

v Achieve a beginner level of proficiency (A1 CFER) in communicating in a variety of everyday

situations;
v Develop your basic repertoire of words and simple phrases related to your personal life and specific
contexts;
v Demonstrate control of the grammatical structures and sentence patterns in a learned repertoire;
v Develop cultural awareness by recognizing socio-cultural differences between Italy and your country in
relation to some specific topics;
v Explore and use different learning strategies to successfully learn a foreign language;
v Discover Italy through videos, readings, and websites, following your interests and collaborating with
your classmates.

Communicative and Linguistic Objectives

At the end of this course, you are expected to be able to:

v Talk about your eating habits and ask questions about food, dishes, and ingredients;
v Talk about past and biographical events;
v React to the news using discourse markers;
v Give and receive information about places;
v Describe a city;
v Describe travel experiences;
v Talk about clothing and communicate in a clothing store;
v Give advice;
v Be consistently correct in (and feel confident about) pronunciation and spelling;
v Have a good grasp of the rules of agreement in number and gender between articles, nouns, and
adjectives;
v Conjugate regular and some irregular verbs in present and past (passato prossimo) tense;
v Navigate simple texts in the present and past tense;
v Comprehend the main points of short dialogues, videos and commercials;
v Write a beginner level on topics you are familiar with.
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 Learning Activities and Course Flow
All in-class and outside-class activities and assignments are tied to the course objectives and are meant to
help you establish a productive and healthy learning routine of regular practice. The small, formative and
manageable assignments will prepare you for the summative assessments (quizzes and exams) and will
result in deeper and long-lasting learning.

a. Before Class
Expect to invest 30 to 60 minutes before each session, to engage with machine-graded exercises
on Canvas. Through these assignments, you will explore or reinforce language structures
(vocabulary and grammar) and practice reading, listening, writing and speaking. The activities are
designed as short quizzes and constitute a significant component of your final grade.
By clicking on the date of class from our Canvas Home Page, you access the activities to complete
the day before that class. To avoid a last-minute rush, the due date of these short assignments is
set the day before class.

b. In Class
In-class activities include short presentations, language games, different types of formative and
summative assessments, as well as collaborative work and projects in small groups. Verbal
communication is an intrinsically social activity and therefore your active participation in all class
activities is essential to your learning. Make sure to be engaged and ready to share your homework
and questions, and be willing to interact in Italian (as much as possible, of course) with your
instructor and peers. Regular attendance and active participation will be noted and graded
accordingly. Make sure you bring your book or have Al Dente 1 on the BlinkLearning platform
open for each class: we will use it in class as well.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS COURSE

When planning and designing my lessons, I follow several principles and beliefs that guide my teaching
practice. I want to put them in the open so that you have an idea of what to expect from this course.

1. Student Centrality
My course is not composed of lectures. The activities I plan have you at the center of the action: What do
you know at the moment, what can you use the language for, do you have a margin of choice in the work we
do, do I have the pulse of your challenges and progress, are you enjoying learning Italian?

2. My Role as a Facilitator
I try to avoid lecturing and taking up too much of our time together. I aim at keeping my explanations brief
and clear and promote your active engagement.

3. Use of Target Language

The development of listening skills requires time and continuous exposure. This is also the base that allows
you to produce oral language (speaking). I will probably be the only native speaker you interact with: For
this reason, I will speak Italian as much as possible, from the very beginning. I know, it is a challenge! You
are not supposed to understand everything. Through context, and the help of other languages, you will
probably catch 'something'; you will infer meaning, sometimes it will be correct, sometimes not. The
important part here is the process: You are building comprehension skills, and you will see progress.

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4. Flipped Classes and Active Learning
I believe that we must use the time we have together in class to develop communicative skills. While you can
manage drills on vocabulary and grammar on your own, you need a community and time to practice
speaking in real interactions.
For this reason, I will ask you to complete several exercises at home, before our class, that will prepare you
for the in-class activities. The time we spend together is dedicated to answering your questions (which are
ALWAYS welcome!), collaborating with classmates, and responding to linguistic stimuli.

5. Balance of the 4 Language Skills: Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing

Traditionally, language courses in higher education settings have focused on developing only 2 skills:
Reading and Writing. While these are important abilities, they imply a restrictive use of the target language.
In my courses, I aim at giving Listening and Speaking the space they deserve. You will see this in the
lesson plans, but also in a more balanced weight given to oral activities.

6. Our Textbook
We recently adopted this new textbook, Al Dente 1, which follows the Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages (CERF). The approach to language learning is quite different from what you
would find in a typical North American textbook but is based on solid and proven pedagogical practices.
The most innovative feature:
- It is only in Italian (!) This creates a situation of 'immersion', in which you are constantly
encouraged to understand and infer meaning from context and examples, inductively;
- There are no lists of vocabulary: You are asked to make hypotheses about the meaning of a new word
by considering the context;
- Grammar is presented concisely at the end of the unit: You are generally asked to infer the
grammatical rules from examples of given texts;
- Texts are often examples of authentic language.

All in all, the method challenges you, and at the beginning might put you out of your comfort zone. If this is
the case, remember: The goal is to give you ownership of your learning process, let you ask questions, and
look for answers. It is also a way to develop skills, beyond mere memorization of content.

7. Safe and Supportive Learning Environment

I believe in fostering a learning environment where students feel always respected, and free to try and make
mistakes. While I recognize that personality may play a role in how students vocally participate in class
activities, I ask you all to wear your extrovert hats, and not be afraid to speak Italian. Do not hesitate to ask
questions, voice your doubts, and look for answers: I and your classmates are there for you!

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Assessment and Evaluation Met

Group Weight
Partecipazione 22%
(In-class activities + engagement) 3%
Preparazione 20%
(At home assignments)
Quizzes 15%
(3 Chapter Quizzes)
Esami orali 20%
(intervista, video, presentazione)
Esame Finale 20%
(Final Exam)
Total 100%
Assessment and Evaluation Methods
For a full, detailed description of the assignments and their Rubrics, please refer to the section Course Assessment on Canvas.

FURTHER DETAILS ON ASSESSMENT METHODS

Partecipazione (Canvas + interactive activities and group projects)

Your active participation in all class activities is essential to your learning and an important part of your
overall grade. Group projects, pop quizzes, polls, and short questions for individual or small group work will
be administered regularly to activate you as a learner and help you develop your language skills.
Make sure to engage in all the different activities, be ready to share your homework, ask questions, and be
willing to interact in Italian (as much as possible, of course) with your instructor and peers. Have our
textbook Al Dente 1 open for each class as we will often use its materials to work on comprehension and
language structures. Canvas activities which count as participation require an access code. Students not
attending cannot complete these assignments remotely, but need to contact me.
At the end of the course, I will assign a maximum of 3 points for active class participation, based on
students’ levels of engagement in class activities. 3 points will be given to students who: come to class, ask
questions, volunteer to answer my questions, speak Italian as much as possible, and show enthusiasm in
collaborating with their classmates.

Preparazione (Canvas Prima della lezione)

Canvas assignments include voice recordings, machine-graded exercises, videos, listening and reading
activities, songs, and review exercises. They will provide you with the opportunity to check on your progress
and be ready for quizzes, exams, and in-class participation.

Quizzes
At the end of each Unit, the 30-35 minute quizzes (closed book) which you will all take together in class on
Canvas, will measure your ongoing progress in form acquisition, function and usage, vocabulary, listening
and reading. They will focus on the communicative functions, grammar, vocabulary, listening and reading
exercises presented in those specific units. The grammar questions may include short-answer, multiple-
choice, matching questions or questions of the “fill in the blank” variety.
Quiz 1: will be based on the material from Unit 5
Quiz 2: will be based on the material from Unità 6
Quiz 3: will be based on the material from Unità 7
Quiz 4: will be based on the material from Unità 8

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Esami orali
Video: Students will be asked to work in couples and shoot a video related to food, food preparation or
grocery shopping.
Interview: In groups of 2, students will interview each other about the topics discussed in class.
Final Oral Exam: The exam includes a monologue and a conversation with me on topics covered during the
course.

Esame finale
The final exam is based on the assignments, quizzes and in-class activities we have been working on and
reviewing during the whole term. It’s a 90-minute exam. It will be administered during the exam period
and will include topics from Unit 5 to Unit 8 of the textbook. It will feature short essays, reading and
listening comprehension exercises, grammar and questions on vocabulary, communicative functions, and
Italian culture previously discussed or assigned as homework.

Important Note: For each written assignment you are expected to use only the grammar and vocabulary
we have practiced in this course. Any evidence of the use of grammatical structures at a more advanced
level than expected will result in a “void assignment” (zero mark), and investigations about proper
academic conduct.

MY IN-TERM CONCESSION PLAN

Partecipazione
If you are about to miss a class due to illness or other urgent matters, please send me an email before
the impacted class/es ([email protected]) in order to be excused. You can miss 2 classes without
impacting your participation grade.

Preparazione
Canvas assignments (“A casa” section) are due before each class and enable you to come to class
prepared and ready to engage in class activities. They also help you to keep the pace of the course and
manage its workload. There are no late penalties for assignments you see open on Canvas. On
Sundays, though, I usually close the past week’s assignments. Make sure you work regularly on
Canvas and get all the possible points for Preparazione.

Quizzes
Drop or miss 1 chapter quiz. Among the 4 quizzes scheduled at the end of each of the covered Units,
only 3 of them count toward your final grade.

For more general information about academic concessions, please visit:

https://www.arts.ubc.ca/degree-planning/academic-performance/academic-concession/

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UNIVERSITY POLICIES
UBC provides resources to support student learning and to maintain healthy lifestyles but recognizes that sometimes
crises arise and so there are additional resources to access including those for survivors of sexual violence. UBC values
respect for the person and ideas of all members of the academic community. Harassment and discrimination are not
tolerated nor is suppression of academic freedom. UBC provides appropriate accommodation for students with
disabilities and religious observances. UBC values academic honesty and students are expected to acknowledge the ideas
generated by others and uphold the highest academic standards in all of their actions.
Details of the policies and how to access support are available on the UBC Senate website.

STATEMENT REGARDING ONLINE LEARNING FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Some UBC courses might cover topics that are censored or considered illegal by non-Canadian governments. This may
include, but is not limited to, human rights, representative government, defamation, obscenity, gender or sexuality, and
historical or current geopolitical controversies. If you are a student living abroad, you will be subject to the laws of your
local jurisdiction, and your local authorities might limit your access to course material or take punitive action against
you. UBC is strongly committed to academic freedom, but has no control over foreign authorities (please visit
http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,33,86,0 for an articulation of the values of the University
conveyed in the Senate Statement on Academic Freedom). Thus, we recognize that students will have a legitimate reason
to exercise caution in studying certain subjects. If you have concerns regarding your personal situation, consider
postponing taking a course with manifest risks, until you are back on campus or reach out to your academic advisor to
find substitute courses. For further information and support, please visit: http://academic.ubc.ca/support-
resources/freedom-expression

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY STATEMENT

The academic enterprise is founded on honesty, civility, and integrity. As members of this enterprise, all students are
expected to know, understand, and follow the codes of conduct regarding academic integrity. At the most basic level,
this means submitting only original work done by you and acknowledging all sources of information or ideas and
attributing them to others as required. This also means you should not cheat, copy, or mislead others about what is your
work. Violations of academic integrity (i.e., misconduct) lead to the breakdown of the academic enterprise, and therefore
serious consequences arise and harsh sanctions are imposed. For example, incidences of plagiarism or cheating may
result in a mark of zero on the assignment or exam and more serious consequences may apply when the matter is referred
to the Office of the Dean. Careful records are kept to monitor and prevent recurrences. A more detailed description of
academic integrity, including the University’s policies and procedures, may be found in the UBC Calendar: Student
Conduct and Discipline.

Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities

Academic accommodations help students with a disability or ongoing medical condition overcome challenges that may
affect their academic success. Students requiring academic accommodations must register with the Centre for
Accessibility. Please provide me with your accommodation letter as soon as possible.

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