ITAL10002: Italian 4

Under university protocol the assessment needs to be unique for each subject code, even if the subjects themselves are essentially the same. You will notice that the only difference in assessment is that second year students also need to fill out an online reflective diary over the course of the semester.

ITAL10002

• Three take home assignments (totalling 1200 words) in weeks 3, 6 and 10

This was still my favourite subject at university this semester, although Italian 4 was not quite as amazing as Italian 3 was last semester. That being said, it was still a pretty awesome breadth subject to take and very easy to do well in. Definitely worth considering if you'd like to learn a language but are intimidated by the difficulty - Italian is a pretty easy language to learn anyway, but the assessment structure and the staff make it a whole heap easier. This subject is the equivalent to Year 12 Italian but it's much easier to do well in compared to taking Italian in VCE.

The grammar points we learnt this semester were:

• Revision of the congiuntivo presente (present subjunctive) and congiuntivo passato (past subjunctive) tenses
• Congiuntivo imperfetto e trapassato (imperfect subjunctive and past perfect subjunctive tenses)
• Passato remoto (remote past tense)
• Trapassato prossimo e remoto (past perfect tenses)
• 'Ci' e 'ne' (special object pronouns)
• Pronomi personali forme combinate (combined direct-indirect object pronouns)
• Pronomi dimostrativi (demonstrative pronouns)
• Pronomi relativi (relative pronouns)
• Imperativo (the imperative mood)
• Il periodo ipotetico (the hypothetical construction with se - if)
• Pronomi tonici (stressed pronouns)
• Avverbi (adverbs)
• La forma passiva (the passive voice)
• Comparativi e superlativi (comparatives and superlatives)

Perhaps it was because I already knew most of the grammar points taught in Italian 3 prior to enrolling in it, but I found this semester focussed much more on learning new grammar points. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but one of the differences I happened to observe across both of the semesters.

I think 95% of what I said in my Italian 3 review pretty much applies to this review, so make sure you check it out if you haven't already. I'll just describe a few more key differences between Italian 3 and Italian 4.

The structure of the assessment is pretty much identical, with the exception of a five minute oral presentation this semester, worth 10% of your grade. The oral presentation is not at all like the oral exam in VCE - in this subject you just sign up for a particular topic and deliver a presentation to your conversation class. Generally speaking the topics relate to one of the texts you've looked at in your language class, but there were a few other topics as well. Some are creative, others require you to talk about a specific person or thing. You're not supposed to prepare a speech beforehand but most people do anyway (including myself) and memorise it in such a way that it sounds off-the-cuff. You're allowed a few cue cards or notes (which you submit to the teacher so they have a record of the assessment), but you'll fail if you read straight off them. As long as you make sure you address the key criteria, it's not particularly difficult to score well in. One big area where people tended to lose marks was for the class participation requirement - you need to involve your class in your discussion in some way. I created a Prezi presentation, some chose to draw diagrams on the whiteboard over the course of their presentation, others with food-related topics actually cooked the food and brought it in for us to eat! A couple of people did nothing though and consequently lost marks. For the sake of the rest of the class listening to you, try to do something interesting and a bit different to make your presentation more engaging. Given the small class sizes it shouldn't be too intimidating.

I think the main difference I found between the semesters was the quality and usefulness of the conversation class. Last semester, it was a class I couldn't wait for each week; this semester they weren't anywhere near as good. They heeded the advice of reducing the amount of reliance on technology, but failed to provide enough adequate activities to work through - consequently we would finish them all with 20 minutes to spare and people would just start talking in English again. Unfortunately I think Francesca also had a competing commitment that slightly clashed with my conversation class which meant that she often turned up late as well.
There's a couple of relatively small reasons as to why I've decreased my rating from 4.5 to 4 out of 5 for Italian this semester, but ultimately what's going for it is its relaxed, easy-going nature and high quality teaching staff who are only too happy to help you out. For example, I requested an extension for one of the assignments this semester due to my cousin's wedding and for Elisabetta to give it to me with no questions asked was just a breath of fresh air from all the bureaucracy that's only too endemic in Science/Biomedicine subjects. Generally speaking, Italian 4 marks the end of the journey for most breadth students, since Italian 5 departs from grammar and takes on a very strong literary flavour to it. That's largely due to the fact that you've basically been taught all the grammar you'll ever need to know by now. I'm not sure if it's the end of the road for me just yet, but it has been an enriching year made all the better with the ongoing help and support from Elisabetta. I literally cannot thank her enough for taking my Italian to a whole new level. That's all I got to say for now, but as always if you'd like any extra information or have any questions, please feel free to ask. In bocca al lupo! (Good luck! )

No, as there are no lectures in the subject. Grammar slides will be made available on the LMS after each grammar class.

As I said, there are no lectures in this subject but Elisabetta Ferrari took both language groups* this semester.

* Note: The two seminar classes are streamed together. When preparing a timetable, make sure you look at the repeats - if the repeat number is the same, the classes are linked. Conversation classes are not linked.

Francesca Isaia took the conversation classes this semester.

No.

4/5

(same as Italian 3)

• Da Capo, 7th Edition. Antonio Morena and Donatella Melucci, Annamaria Moneti and Graziana Lazzarini 2011
• Da Capo, student activities manual. Silvia Abbiati and Julia Cozzarelli 2011
• Collins Italian Dictionary & Grammar

You will also need to purchase a subject reader which will be used throughout the semester.

The textbook is absolutely essential as you will be working through it over the course of the semester. The student activities manual is not necessary, but you have to buy the textbook and the workbook together so you'll end up buying that too. The student activities manual is not used in class but can be used as revision. Given the lack of revision material for this subject, I'd recommend using this book over the course of the semester anyway.

Obviously you don't necessarily have to have the Collins bilingual dictionary - any will suffice. I use the Garzanti bilingual dictionary, recommended by my teachers at high school since the Italians tend to do a better job at translating English than we do translating Italian . It's a really expensive dictionary but since I've used it a lot over an extended period of time, I've got my use out of it. While it's an amazing dictionary, it's probably not worth it if you're studying Italian only in the short term. You're not allowed to use a dictionary in the mid-semester test or the exam, only the take-home assignments. The use of an online translator is strictly prohibited and may result in the cancellation of your enrolment at the university.

Contact Hours: 4 hours. 1 x 2-hour seminar and 2 x 1-hour seminar.
- The two hour seminar is your language class, with a focus on reading and writing about a particular topic or theme. The one hour seminar is your grammar class, focussing solely on learning and consolidating grammar points. The tutorial is your conversation class, obviously focussing on developing your speaking and listening skills.
Total Time Commitment: 8 hours per week, including 4 hours of class time. Total 96 hours.

Semester 2 2014

H1