The Italian Headstart for Italy program consists of a unit or. Italian pronunciation and five modules with accompanying tapes. The pronunciation unit gives you some hints on Italian sounds and the Italian writing system. The emphasis has, of course, been put on differences between English and Italian and not on similarities. You'll find examples of how these sounds are commonly written.
Each of the five modules is divided into units (three to five units per module).
The units of Modules IV and V are further divided into parts; each part or unit of Modules IV and V is a complete lesson. The learning activities for each part or unit are;
1. Conversation
2. Notes on the Conversation
3. Exercises
4. Self-evaluation Quiz
Unit-by-unit objectives for each module are stated at the beginning of the module. Additionally, some units in Modules IV and V contain Supplementary Vocabulary lists that appear just before the Self-evaluation Quizzes (SEQs). The last section of each module is an Italian-English Glossary. A separate booklet contains the Cumulative Glossary (Italian-English and English-Italian).
Modules I through III, excluding the expansion units, are mandatory and should be studied in sequence. Average completion time for students who have never studied Italian is 30 to 40 hour The expansion units and Modules IV and V are optional; material from these units is not included in the End-of-Course Test. When you have completed the first three modules, you can study any parts of Modules IV and V that are of particular interest to you. If you have studied Italian before, you will probably be able to cover all five modules in about 40 hours.
Italian (About this sound italiano or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardised Italian and other regional languages. According to the Bologna statistics of the European Union, Italian is spoken as a mother tongue by 59 million people in the EU (13% of the EU population), mainly in Italy, and as a second language by 14 million (3%). Including the Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland and Albania) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is more than 85 million. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages; it is studied and learned in all the confederation schools and spoken, as mother language, in the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Grigioni and by the Italian immigrants that are present in large numbers in German- and French-speaking cantons. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City. It is co-official in Slovenian Istria and in Istria County in Croatia. The Italian language adopted by the state after the unification of Italy is based on Tuscan, which beforehand was a language spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was also influenced by other Italian languages and by the Germanic languages of the post-Roman invaders.
Italian is spoken in: Italy
Italian is also called: Italiano
