Italian Beginner 1

If you have little or no previous knowledge of Italian, this is the right level for you. In this immersive course, learn to share information about yourself and ask basic questions using the present tense. Practise listening and speaking about everyday social situations such as meeting new people, describing yourself, your family members and friends, and expressing opinions. Focus on pronunciation and basic grammar in interactive and conversational classes.

Course Outline

This is not a prescriptive list. Exact course outlines are determined by the instructor to best meet the needs of the class. This is meant to serve as a guideline and suggest what may be covered at this level. It is often necessary to repeat levels in order to become completely comfortable with the skills at each stage with a different teacher and style.

Communicative Objectives

• In this course, you will learn how to
• Greet and introduce yourself
• Describe people’s physical appearance and personality
• Express your opinion
• Ask for explanations and show agreement
• Order at a bar.

Linguistic Content

• Alphabet, sounds and pronunciation
• Greetings
• Cardinal numbers
• Gender and number of articles, nouns and adjectives
• sentence structure (statements, negations, questions, and exclamations)
• Personal pronouns
• Conjugation in present tense: essere, avere, chiamarsi
• Formal and informal ‘you’
• Conjugation in present tense of regular verbs in -ARE, -ERE and -IRE
• C’è, ci sono

Expected Effort

You can expect to spend about three hours per week attending live, virtual classes and completing course work on your own time. Expect double this amount during the intensive summer term.

Textbook

This course requires the purchase of the textbook Via Del Corso A1, which is used for Beginner 1, Beginner 2 and Lower Intermediate 1 levels. This course covers units 1-4. Students can order this book from the UBC Bookstore.

Course Format

This course is offered online and/or in-person. See Available Sessions for details on the course format.

Our online conversational courses offer a virtual classroom experience where you can see and interact with your teacher and classmates over Zoom. Log in at a set time to participate in individual, pair and group work, ask questions and receive feedback from your instructor.

Outside of class time, access course materials online at your own pace for up to three weeks after the course ends.

In-person classes are offered at UBC Robson Square in downtown Vancouver. 

Learn more about online learning at Extended Learning.

How am I assessed?

This is a non-credit course without letter or numerical grades. You receive verbal feedback on your conversation and grammar skills from your instructor during class. Written homework is typically corrected in class. Some lesson modules may include quizzes.

Record of completion

A record of completion will be emailed to students who participate and satisfy the course requirements within two weeks of the course end date. Course completion means 80% attendance and/or 80% completion of mandatory assignments.

Technology requirements

For all languages classes, you’ll need access to the internet, a personal email account and an up-to-date web browser.

For online classes, you will also need a video camera and a microphone on your device.

The day before your course starts, you will receive an email with instructions on how to access the course.