Previous Experience and Knowledge Needed?
This course follows on from the Beginners course. Learners should have completed approximately 60 hours tuition.
To help develop fluency in the language, this Improvers course will focus primarily on speaking and listening skills but will also include practice in reading and writing. Learners will have plenty of opportunities to practise Italian through class activities as well as learning more about the culture and history of Italy. The book studied will be: NUOVO ESPRESSO 2 -libro dello studente e esercizi.
Learning Outcomes:
Throughout the year, the course will cover different topics each term:
For term 1 the learning objectives are:
Speaking:
Engaging in conversations, asking and answering questions about familiar topics, expressing likes/dislikes, opinions and feelings.
Reading Comprehension:
Understanding short, texts on familiar topics and identifying key information in leaflets and reports.
Writing:
Writing simple descriptions of events.
Vocabulary:
Learning or expanding vocabulary related to everyday life, shopping, early childhood memories and describing events in the past, as well as describing people both physically and in terms of personality, giving advice or expressing wishes, animals and pets.
Grammar
Learning new grammatical structures such as the verb piacere.
Revision of direct and indirect pronouns and unstressed pronouns.
The Imperative (using tu).
The imperfect tense (when to use it and how to use it in conjunction with perfect tense).
Comparatives (taller than, older than, etc.)
Altered names (suffixes in -ino and -one and others).
The use of “ci” and “ne”.
Indefinites (qualcuno, nessuno).
Forms and use of present conditional.
Cultural Understanding:
Gaining insights into Italian culture and customs.
Extra costs on the course for example textbook, materials or equipment
The tutor will discuss the text book in the first class.
For the first session you will need to bring:
Please bring a pen and some paper with you.
On completion of this course, what might your next steps be?
Learners will be able to proceed to the Italian Improvers second term in January 2026.
Adult Learn and Train offer courses through-out the year.
Try similar courses or maybe look at learning something completely new.
You will find provision on some Saturday and Sundays, you will also find courses available in the day and evening at different venues in Cambridge. Courses vary in length from one-off sessions to 10 weeks or more.