Undergraduate Program
Introductory-level Italian language courses at UMass Amherst aim to familiarize students with Italian language and culture, as well as to help them develop a critical awareness of their own culture and belief systems. In our courses, students not only learn to speak, read, listen, and write in Italian, but they also acquire the socio-cultural competence that they will need to successfully navigate the target culture.
The Italian Studies program at UMass Amherst offers students a number of different options for completing one hundred and two hundred level courses. Students can take intensive 6-credit courses, which cover a year’s worth of material in one semester, and they can also take advantage of the reverse sequence for the first year of study, which includes Italian 110 in the spring and 120 in the fall. Our department also offers Italian 110 and 120 online over the summer through the office of Continuing and Professional Education. https://www.umass.edu/uww/classes/explore
For introductory language classes, UMass uses an Open Education Resource textbook, created by faculty members Dr. Stacy Giufre and Dr. Melina Masterson. For their work, Drs. Giufre and Masterson have been named Master Creators by the COERLL Language OER network. This e-book is available at no-cost to the students, other Italian programs, and the public at http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/tutt-a-tavola-vol-1. A guide to how to reuse and adapt Tutt* a tavola is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbXb-JlaQ54.
As we are committed to helping all of the students in the Italian program succeed, we frequently offer practica and one-credit courses to help to further their understanding of Italian language and culture. Offerings include one-credit courses on English grammar for students of Italian and French, one-credit conversation and review sections, and individual review sessions with exchange students from Forlì, Italy. For more information on how to take advantage of these offerings, please contact Dr. Stacy Giufre, Director of the Italian Language Program, at sgiufre@.umass.edu.
