TEACHING METHOD
SCHOOL: METHODS TO LEARN ITALIAN
Idea Verona uses dynamic methods of teaching, encouraging active participation of students.
The courses take place at different levels, each student can develop their language and grammar skills through simulations of real situations, to make linguistic expressions more spontaneous and natural. The goal is to give students receptive skills such as comprehension, listening and reading, and productive skills, such as writing, speaking and interacting in Italian.
The first lessons (usually from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.) will favour the learning and application of structures and functions of the Italian language, while the second session (usually from 11:15 to 13:15) focuses on conversations and aspects of Italian culture. Grammar is not dealt with in a rigid way, but as a useful frame of reference for understanding structure, which will then be used consciously in correct usage.
We play to learn Italian
To encourage student learning, we create a relaxing, motivating and highly stimulating environment. In this context, the student participates in class activities in cooperation and positive competition with their companions and is the star of their own learning process. In the second session of lessons, Idea Verona teachers will demonstrate a different and more productive way to learn the language through educational games and fun conversation activities. Thanks to the so-called Rule of Forgetting (Krashen, 1983), the student plays, sings or discusses, forgetting they are studying and learns more deeply. Participating in a recreational activity distracts from the strictly linguistic content of the task since the immediate focus is on the objective of the game and its dynamics.
Jump into the real city
Direct contact with the arts and crafts of Verona, through visits to markets and businesses near the school, where students are encouraged to talk with native speakers and practice Italian with the help of more experienced students and teachers using grammatical structures and vocabulary learned in the first lessons.
The courses generally last about four weeks, but it is possible and encouraged to participate in more consecutive courses. The short courses lasting one, two or three weeks, start the same day as the four week course (see the calendar) if the student is an absolute beginner; insertion into an in-progress course is possible for those who already know some Italian and can only enrol at different dates (usually on Mondays) from those indicated.