Overview of the Italian Programmatic Course

The Italian Programmtic Course is designed to introduce you to spoken Italian. It covers virtually the entire sound system of the language and introduces the basic grammatical categories. Although verb forms are for the most part limited to the present tense, a few other forms, including past tense and future tense are also presented and practiced. The vocabulary and structure in this volume prepare one for talking on the telephone, ordering a meal, discussing daily activities, or requesting someone to do something.

Preface

The Italian (Programmed) Course, Volume I, consist fo thiry four units which have been prepared with accompanying tape recordings, as a self-sustaining introductory course. A second volume of similiar length is projected.

In using the material at the Foreign Service Institute students intersperse periods of study in the language laboratory with classroom sessions to check their progress and to engage in supporting activities. Classroom Activity sections list activities which we have found to be productive supplements to the self teaching units. An instructor's Manual will present the complete voicing script of the tape recordings along with guidance for instructors.

Innovative features of this text include (1) the emphasis on concept understanding (Units IV and XXXI) and (2) new analyses for Italian of intonation (Units V, VI, VII, and "double" consonants (unit XXV) and "gender words" (Units XXII and XXIX).

The course was designed by Stephen Zappala, Chairman of Italian in the Department of Romance Languages. Egle Camozzo, instructor in Italian, was the author's chief consultant who also wrote many of the drill sentences, narratives and dialogues, especially in Units XXI-XXX. In addition, she reviewed and edited all materials and made many useful suggestions. Additional suggestions came from other members of the FSI Italian teaching staff who also reviewed the text.

The recordings were made in the studio fo the FSI Language Laboratory with the technical assistance of Jose M. Ramirez. The voicing was done by Egle Camozzo, Emilia Francini, Giovanni Salvo and Mr. Zappala.

The manuscript was prepared by Maryko Deemer under the supervision of Augusta Koski and Marianne Adams.

Foreward

This volume is designed to introduce you to spoken Italian. It covers virtually the entire sound-system of the language and introduce the basic grammatical categoreies (Gender, Number, Unit, Noun Markers, Person, Tense). Although verb forms are for the most part limited to the Present tense, a few other forms including Past tense and Future tense forms are also presented and practiced. The vocabulary and structure in this volume allows for participation in such situations as talking on the telephone, ordering a meal, discussing daily activities, requesting or telling someone to do something.

Volume I consists of thirty units (numbered 1 through 30) preceded by four preliminary units (A,B,C,D). The preliminary units contain information and certain principles that are fundamental to the study of Italian. They are?

• A - Whis is Italian?
• B - Sounds or Letters?
• C - Sounds and Sound-classes
• D - Stress

A Recapitulation of the major points presented is found after Units X, XV, XX, XXV, and XXX.

Vocabulary lists are at the end of the volume.

The thirty-four units of this volume are in a programmed format. This means that information is presented and practiced in very small steps. The steps are numbered and referred to as 'frames.' A unit may have as few as 27 frames (Units D and 2) or as many as 117 frames (Units 29). Because of the programmed format, the material is self- instructional and requires the use of a tape recorder or compact disc player.

While going through the frames, the student not only receives information about the language, but he is also expected to do certain drills, oral and written. Conceivably, a student who does not have access to a tape recorder or CD player could perform these drills with a teacher in the classroom. However, experiments with programmed instruction seem to indicate that progress is faster and performance is better if the student studies the programmed material thoroughly on his own and has periodic checkout sessions with a teacher.

At the end of each regular unit there is a section called Classroom Activity. This section lists the various kinds of activities that the teacher should conduct during the check-out sessions. The emphasis here is on communication and 'real' language. This section also gives an idea of what the student is expected to control in each unit. It should be made clear to all that despite the often-detailed information presented to the student in the frames, he is not expected to remember and control everything so presented.

Prior Knowledge of Grammar

This course presumes no prior knowledge of any grammar on the part of the student. Grammatical terms are explained as they are introduced and students should learn them as they get them. Also in this text are some new grammatical terms that appear in no other Italian text. These are not intended to confuse, but to help students understand how Italian works without worrying about how any other language, including English, works.