Conversation 1 (In-Person) – Wednesday evenings
Conversation 1 is the best way to improve oral fluency through conversational practice.
Teachers will bring new topics to discuss every week and will prompt the conversation in different ways such as a selection of guided conversations in Italian, questions, and brief exercises relating to contemporary Italy, taken from different sources (short readings, websites, videos, music, etc.) that will help you to gain more self-confidence.
Spoken accuracy and fluency are the focus of this course, but the teacher will signal and correct the main grammar mistakes too and will be at the student’s disposal in case there is a need to clarify some concepts to improve learners’ accuracy while speaking.
Completion of the Beginner 3 Course is recommended.
What you will learn
- Students will expand their vocabulary in a way that will benefit both general conversation and discussion of specific topics
- Students will familiarize themselves with a variety of current issues relating to Italy
- Students will develop their communicative skills in Italian through discussion of several topics, ranging from social and political issues to media, pop culture, films, music, fashion, food, and sports
Syllabus
Benvenute e Benvenuti!
Students will be provided with handouts and class materials.
No textbook is required
Wednesday evening, APRIL 17 to JUNE 19TH, 2024
5:00 pm-6:00 pm PST
10 weeks – Classes meet once a week in our downtown school
Course Fee
Early Bird Rate 140$ (+5%GST) – available until April 5
160$ (+ GST) after April 6
Course Cancellations
Please note that the school administration may cancel courses due to low enrolment. Upon cancellation, registrants will receive a full refund.
For any further info about our cancellation policy please visit Cancellation & Refund policy
Speakers
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Sonia Dal TortoI was born in the small region of Molise and then moved to the north of Italy (Emilia-Romagna) at the age of 19. There I obtained my Master’s degree in International Cooperation and Protection of Human Rights. I discovered the passion for teaching while working as Assistant Grant Writer in an NGO in Greece. There I started to teach Italian to young refugees and to hold seminars about human rights in high schools and other non-formal educational settings. Once back in Italy, I continued to teach Italian to migrants and I started to study at Università per Stranieri di Siena.
Furthermore, as a Grant Writer, I had the chance to promote inclusion and diversity in the education system, thanks to proposals I made in the areas of Youth and Children, Disabled people, Education and Social Services. I proposed strategies for parents, teachers and community workers to confront educational poverty in disadvantaged backgrounds, introducing intercultural teaching practices with the help of cultural-linguistic mediators.
To me teaching holds so many invaluable meanings: it is turning into success the potential that every student has; it is understanding our communities to build better ones; it is a life-learning process thanks to the engagement with students from different backgrounds; it is falling in love every time with the Italian culture.
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Stefano Dal FarraBorn and raised in a small town in the North-East of Italy, Stefano studied Cultural and Linguistic Mediation at the University of Udine and obtained a master’s degree in project management and European Studies as part of the Erasmus Mundus Program. He worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Ottawa and as an Italian teacher for foreigners, immigrants, asylum seekers and Erasmus+ volunteers in Italy for more than 2 years. His passion for travelling and exploring the world, made him interested in learning new languages and discovering new cultures, as well as sharing and conveying his mother tongue and culture to other people. Thanks to his experience in the Erasmus+ Program for non-profit associations in more than 25 projects as project coordinator, content manager, youth trainer and group facilitator for intercultural groups, he masters good expertise on content creating, teaching, team building, group dynamics, soft skills, communication and intercultural dialogue.
