TEACHING GRAMMAR IN ITALIAN COURSES AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Scheme of the refresher seminar for teachers of Italian abroad
(courtesy of prof. Foil)

1/2 November 2008 – Golden Tulip Bel Air Hotel- The hague

Speaker: Prof. Christmas Foil


WHY THE VERBAL ASPECT

The gradually more detailed description of the linguistic aspects is indispensable for those students who, passed the preparatory degrees, deal with the study of the Italian language at the level of Independent and Proficient User. In this phase, it is precisely the deepening of the use of tenses and verbal ways that plays a role of primary importance. In communication, indeed, the verb not only takes charge of the main dynamic aspects, but it is also the part of the speech that provides the most information from the morphological point of view: person, number, time, way, appearance, diathesis.

Generally, an Independent and a Proficient User are critical of the messages they produce, be they simple or complex, managing to perceive the considerable communicative differences that the formulation of a sentence entails. It is the signal that the mechanical learning phase has passed and a more plastic and conscious use of L2 has begun. In this sentence, as it was said, the verb plays an absolutely privileged role. Our discussion develops according to the following scheme:

1. INDICATIVE
1.1 The present
1.2. "Typical" auxiliary verbs -1
1.3. "Typical" auxiliary verbs -2
1.4. "Typical" auxiliary verbs -3
1.5. "Typical" auxiliary verbs -4
1.6. Past past vs past past
1.7. Imperfect vs perfect times
1.8. Relative times
1.9. Modal uses of the future
2. IMPERATIVE
2.1. Types of imperative
3. CONDITIONAL VS INDICATIVE
3.1. Conditional vs indicative
3.2. The conditional
4. SUBJUNCTIVE
4.1. Subjunctive necessary and not – 1
4.2. Subjunctive necessary and not – 2
4.3. Strong-willed phrases
4.4. Pragmatic subjunctive
4.5. Hypothetical period
5. IMPLIED WAYS
5.1. Infinity, gerund
5.2. Present lexicalized participle -1
5.3. Present participle lexicalized -2
6. IMPERSONAL FORMS AND PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
6.1. Impersonal verbs - 1
6.2. Impersonal verbs - 2
6.3. passive form
7. DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH
7.1. Direct and indirect speech - 1
7.2. Direct and indirect discord - 2
7.3. Indirect questions
8. COORDINATION - TYPES OF COORDINATION
8.1. Coordination
8.2. The multifunctional "e" - "ma"
9. FROM COORDINATION TO SUBORDINATION
9.1. From coordination to subordination
10. SUBORDINATION - TYPES
10.1. Final and concessive propositions
10.2. Temporal and conditional propositions
11. SCANTONAMENTI
11.1. Verbal reduction scheme of contemporary Italian
11.2 The most recurring rhetorical figures
11.3. Diagram for an intuitive use of the auxiliary being