RLIT 105
Pathway to Proficiency Fall 2020
Division I
This is not the current course catalog

The course taught in Italian aims primarily at fine-tuning the student’s speaking, reading and writing ability, while providing an introduction to the formal study of Italian culture and society through the analysis of short literary texts, articles, films, and plays. This course will also offer an exploration of Italy’s lesser-known cultural and natural sites in an attempt to highlight what Italy has to offer in terms of eco-friendly and sustainable tourism and cultural diversity. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter’s quest for social justice, a part of this course will be dedicated to Italian black writers and artists to explore how the Italian colonial past is affecting Italy’s racial discourse and the construction of its national identity. Students will review and expand the grammar structures learned in the previous semesters to achieve a higher level of fluency and sophistication in language production. Italian 105 is intended for study-abroad returnees and other advanced speakers; students who have been particularly successful in Italian 101-102 are also encouraged to enroll. This will be an online course, with a mix of synchronous and asynchronous elements. Students will meet twice a week in small groups of 4-6 students. Students will have the option to practice oral communication through 30-minute weekly conversations with native speakers available on the online platform Talkabroad.