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Prior to enrolling in courses at this language level, students must have completed or tested out of a minimum of four semesters (or six quarters) of college-level Italian at their home university in the U.S.

This course aims to improve the four basic skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) with a particular focus on writing and speaking. Through a direct exposition to Italian language and society, students will be asked to focus on grammar, idiomatic expressions, vocabulary, Italian habits, and stereotypes. A selection of newspaper articles, literary texts (i.e. short stories, poems, songs), movies and advertisements will be analyzed during the course in order to understand the structure of and the changes in Italian society and language. At this stage, text analysis and a widening of lexical structures are very important and useful to gain understanding of the evolution of Italian language. Students will be asked to express ideas and opinions on a variety of topics related to Italian culture and society, and they will write short essays and reports on their personal experiences and on other topics discussed during class time.