Italian (Beginners)
This Group start again from 10th October 2018
Members are welcome who have little knowledge of Italian and who would like to learn something about the language for holiday purposes or simply as a fun thing to do.
This course is designed for newcomers to the language and others for whom their Italian has never got beyond a very basic level or has lapsed through lack of use over the years. The course is structured around the BBC publication Buongiorno Italia! by Joseph Cremona.
The BBC course underpinned by this text has been designed to enable students to understand and use colloquial Italian. As well as introducing students to Italian vocabulary and grammar, its teaching focuses on a series of dialogues that might take place in scenarios in which you might want to buy things, ask for directions, make travel arrangements, book a room in a hotel, order a meal or talk to other people about yourself, your family and your work.
There is a CD accompanying this core text in which the dialogues are acted out enabling students to acquire the correct pronunciation of words. Practice sessions at pronouncing specific words are also included on the CD.
In the group sessions, members engage in following these exercises and practice their own dialogues in Italian in reporting back on things they have been doing since the last group session. To get the most out of this course therefore it is recommended that students make a commitment to do their own homework using the revision sessions built into Buongiorno Italia!
The BBC core text also contains a lot of background information about Italy and Italian culture and history which are further discussed in the group sessions.
The group meets twice a month on alternate Wednesdays, with two-hour sessions running from 2pm to 4pm.
Sessions are run by Eleonora Spencer who is herself Italian.
Here are the views of one member who has been going to this group for two years.
"This group meets every two weeks in a very comfortable home. It is a very friendly group and many are the laughs as we attempt to speak Italian. I have attended this group for two years and I am finding in the second year a whole lot more of the language falls into place. So it would seem that I am constantly learning under the excellent teaching we receive."