SUMMER 2016

 

ITAL 101 Italian I

Prof. Nadia Cristiani

Email: ncristiani@luc.edu

Office: Room 104

Office Hour: Mondays-Thursdays before class by appointment

Meeting Days and Times: M/T/W/TH 3:00 - 4:40pm

Meeting Place: TBA

 

Online course: sakai.luc.edu

         

course description

 

The course is designed to meet the needs of beginner students participating to a study abroad program.

The course will introduce the students to most frequent everyday situations to make them able to communicate and function in a new environment right away.

Grammar and vocabulary will always be presented, analyzed and practiced in a context which is meaningful to the students.

Oral skills will be emphasized while a grounding in grammar will consolidate the understanding and use of the language structures

Vocabulary is based on everyday situations.

 

learning outcomes

 

Classes are taught with a communicative approach, to make students learn by using their own resources and to develop confidence and familiarity with the target language .

The instructor will lead the students through the process of learning using various techniques . Working in pair or small groups is specially emphasized.

Progetto Roma, a series of on-site guided activities, will encourage students to explore sites of the city while practicing structures and vocabulary learned in class interacting with local people. The outcomes of the students ‘work (short written paragraphs, photos, videos) will be entailed also in quizzes and exams.

 

Throughout the course students will learn to:

 ·communicate simply but effectively with native speakers about topics

  related to daily life and needs

 ·write short texts in present and past tense

 ·understand main topics of simple written texts

 ·follow key topics of simple conversations

 ·explore the city on their own supported by the language studied in class

 ·gain familiarity with various aspects of Italian culture and lifestyle

 ·feel at ease if not completely confident with the target language

 ·surf freely in their own individual ways through the efforts of the target language acquisition

 

course requirements

 

In order to attain the learning outcomes outlined above and to ensure that the course moves on effectively, students are encouraged and expected to:

 

1. Attend class. Not attending class will lower a student's grade for several reasons (e.g., lack of participation, missed clarifications, explanations and analyses, missed vocabulary).
2. Participate actively and constructively in class both with the instructor and other students.

 

general absence policy

 

Students requesting that an absence be excused due to illness must provide the instructor with a written note from a physician (a written prescription for medications will not be considered sufficient justification for an absence). Please note that the Academic Advisor, the Associate Director of Students, or the Director of Residence Life can justify absences only in emergency situations. Personal reasons such as travel plans, visiting relatives, friends, etc., cannot be accepted as valid grounds for excusing an absence.

 

course-specific absence guidelines

 

For the purpose of grade calculation, each  unexcused absence that a student adds up after the first one will reduce her or his final grade by 2% (e.g., if a student's pre-absence grade calculation is 95%, with 4 absences the grade reduces 6 percentage points to 89%, resulting in a decrease in the final grade from A to B+).

 

It is the student's responsibility to check homework assignments, class notes, etc. and come to class prepared in case of absence.

 

text – 1 copy is required for each student:

 

 NEW ITALIAN ESPRESSO –TEXTBOOK con videocorso - di GRUPPO ITALIAIDEA- 

ALMA Edizioni 2014- (available for purchase in JFRC bookstore)

 

means of assessment

 

The final grade will be determined on the basis of the following criteria, and grades will be assigned according to the following scale:

 

                                      % of final grade                 Grading Scale

 

%            gr. pt.      meaning A             100-93     4.00         excellent A-            92-89       3.67         B+            88-86       3.33 B              85-81       3.00         good B-            80-78       2.67 C+           77-75       2.33 C             74.5-71    2.00         satisfactory C-            70.5-68    1.67         min. for pass/fail option D+           67.5-63    1.33 D             62.5-60    1.00         poor D-            59.5-57 F              below 57  0.00         failure

 

Class Participation                        15%

*Homework                                15%

Oral Competence                         15%   

Quizzes** (2)                                        20%            

Midterm Exam                             15%            

Final Exam                                  20%            

                                               

 

Students who cannot attend the final exam session will receive a grade of 0 (zero) on the final exam (except for students with a valid excuse; see absence policy), and the final grade will be calculated accordingly.

 

 

The deliberate appropriation and representation of another person's work (ideas, language, findings, etc.) as one's own on any written assignment, quiz, exam, or paper—commonly referred to as "plagiarism"—will result in a student's automatic failure for that assignment or examination and notification of the Director that the student is suspected to have committed plagiarism. Any such behavior undermines the fundamental trust upon which academic integrity and a community of scholars is based. Every student must familiarize herself or himself with the rules referring to academic integrity as outlined in the Loyola University Chicago Undergraduate Studies Catalogue. Knowledge of the University's academic integrity guidelines will be taken for granted.

 

Please remember that while study groups are acceptable, students should not use on-line instant translators to write compositions, ask friends or native speakers to complete their assignments and recycle their own or other people’s materials. Plagiarism or dishonest examination behavior will result minimally in the instructor assigning the grade of “F” for the assignment or examination. For a complete account of what constitutes academic dishonesty as well as the penalties, see the Undergraduate Catalogue.

In addition to the Loyola University Chicago policy on Academic Honesty (see Loyola website), the following rules apply in all modern language courses:

1. Students may not use automated translators to write compositions.

2. Students may not ask friends, relatives or native speakers to complete their assignments.

3. Students may not recycle their own or other people’s work.

4. Students must explicitly cite any material that has been taken from the Internet or other sources and in most cases are urged to paraphrase rather than copy and paste.

 

sakai

 

This course requires that each student activate and maintain access to the Sakai on-line learning tool. Through this medium such tasks can be accomplished as communicating homework assignments, submitting homework, and communicating important course-related information. In addition, specific files can be accessed through Sakai (e.g., course syllabus, quiz correction keys, language-learning files).

 

 

students with disabilities

 

Students with documented disabilities who wish to discuss academic accommodations should contact me the first week of class.