Loyola University Chicago

 
Le professoresse Euridice Orlandino, Maria Palladino, James Schwarten

This course is a presentation of Italian phonology, basic grammar, and structure through vocabulary and situations of everyday life. The purpose of the course is to give students the ability to communicate as soon as possible.

There is oral practice in class on pronunciation, intonation, elements of grammar, creating questions to given answers, complete sentences, filling in blanks with words, and short compositions.

Class attendance is strongly recommended; failure to attend class will inevitably show in performance, both written and oral. Daily attendance and homework are required. There will be no make-up exams. Steady progress during the course will be taken into account in the evaluation of the final grade and so will the opposite situation.

Absence Policy
a) travel plans, visiting relatives, friends, etc., cannot be accepted as valid reasons for absences unless authorized by the direotor
b) only notes authorized by a doctor, the director, the vice director, the assistant director, or the associate dean of students will be acceptable to allow a student to be excused from class.

Schedule

• Week 1 - C. Preliminare: greetings, numbers, months, seasons, days of the week
• Week 2 - C. 1: nouns, adjectives, indefinite article; avere; andare
• Week 3 - C. 2/3: essere; c'e, ci sono; definite article; how to express time
• QUIZ 1
• Week 4 - C. 3/4: present tense, verbs in -are, -ere, -ire
• Week 5 - C. 3/4: regular verbs; possessive adjectives; prepositions
• Week 6 - C. 4: irregular verbs: dire; uscire, venire, volere, dovere, potere
• QUIZ 2
• Week 7 - C. 4: more on irregular verbs; compound prepositions
• Week 8 - C. 5: review; introduction to present perfect
• MID-TERM EXAM
• Semester break
• Week 9 - C. 5/6: present perfect; introduction to direct object pronouns
• Week 10 - C. 6: direct and indirect object pronouns; conoscere and sapere
• QUIZ 3
• Week 11 - C. 7: present perfect with direct object pronouns; piacere
• Week 12 - C. 7: reflexive verbs Thanksgiving / Easter break
• Week 13 - review
• QUIZ 4
• Week 14 - review
• FINAL EXAM

Students' work and performance are evaluated as follows:
40% - 4 Quizzes
15% - Mid-Term Exam
15% - Final Exam
10% - Oral pronunciation and intonation; ability to read, understand and speak Italian; oral proficiency and presentation
10% - Class participation and attendance
10% - Homework: control and accuracy when using grammar, written home assignments, compositions

Grading Scale
"A" [100-96], "A-" [95-93], "B+" [92-91], "B" [90-87], "B-" [86-85], "C+" [84-83], "C" [82-79], "C-" [78-77], "D+" [76-75], "D" [74-72], "D-" [71-70], "F" [69 and below].