The Cactus Course Outlines provide a learning framework for the Cactus Foreign Language Evening Courses. They are designed to provide you with a good idea of what you might cover during the course and include typical themes, vocabulary fields, grammar, cultural content and skills work for the language and the level. The Outlines are flexible rather than prescriptive, in that our teachers always plan their lessons with the specific abilities, aims and interests of the students in their classes in mind.

• Italian Level 1
• Italian Level 2
• Italian Level 3
• Italian Level 4
• Italian Level 5
• Italian Level 6
• Italian Level 7

Topics/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Saying hello and goodbye
• Introducing yourself
• Nationality
• Address and telephone number
• Asking and saying how
• Asking and giving personal details
• Apologizing
• Ordering food and drink at a bar/restaurant
• Making a reservation over the telephone
• Spelling one's name
• Talking about likes and dislikes
• Leisure activities
• Expressing agreement/disagreement
• Asking and telling the time
• Booking a room into a hotel; asking for services and price
• Complaining
• Describing an apartment; renting a flat
• Saying the date
• The Italian alphabet

Grammar:

• Personal subject pronouns
• Definite and indefinite articles
• Present tense of regular verbs
• Modal verbs
• Simple and combined prepositions

Cultural content:

• Titles of study in Italian business cards
• Origin of the names of weekdays
• Italians and the perception of time/punctuality
• The world of work in Italy (male/female jobs)

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
• Basic pronunciation rules
• Plenty of listening activities
• Writing practice – inc. postcards, e-mails, etc.

Topics/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Adjectives
• Describing places
• Asking and giving information
• Asking and giving city directions
• Talking about shops/offices opening hours
• Talking about past events
• Talking about holidays
• Talking about the weather
• Buying food and groceries
• Talking about typical products and eating habits
• Asking and giving a recipe
• Talking about the seasons
• Talking about one's everyday routine
• Describing and buying clothes in a shop
• Asking for the price
• Expressing likes/dislikes and preferences
• Comparing things

Grammar:

• The particle ci
• Interrogative adverbs
• Present perfect
• Regular and irregular past participles
• Absolute superlative
• The impersonal construction
• Reflexive verbs
• Direct and indirect object pronouns
• Comparatives

Cultural content:

• Office/shops opening hours in Italy
• Holidays and greetings in Italy

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
• Revisiting pronunciation rules and numbers
• Plenty of listening activities
• Writing practice – e.g. CV

Topics/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Asking and giving information
• Complaining about something
• Asking and telling the time
• Saying hello/goodbye
• Cardinal and ordinal numbers
• Offering and accepting something
• Expressing state of mind and feelings
• Describing places and people
• Buying a train ticket
• Talking about one's habits; starting a conversation with strangers
• Ordering at a bar
• Expressing likes and dislikes.
• Making a telephone call
• Expressing agreement or disagreement
• Talking about one's job; writing a memo
• Describing a city
• Describing one's home
• Talking about oneself and one's life

Grammar:

• Revisiting previous level's grammar
• Noun agreement
• Definite and indefinite articles
• Present tense of regular and main irregular verbs
• Adjectives agreement
• Interrogatives
• Mi piace, mi piacciono
• Impersonal constructions
• Modal verbs
• Simple and combined prepositions

Cultural content:

• Italian school system
• Italians and coffee: the Italian breakfast
• Italians and the mobile phone
• Italians and the shopping centres

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
• Writing practice – e.g. application letter
• Plenty of listening activities

Topics/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

The module aims at revising and widening the knowledge of the functions/structures studied during the previous modules.

• Apologizing
• Asking for permission
• Describing actions
• Asking and giving information
• Expressing regret and satisfaction
• Expressing personal likes and dislikes
• Buying goods and clothing
• Asking for the price
• Talking about one's interests
• Meeting new people and starting a conversation with them
• Asking for repetition
• Talking about past events
• Making comparisons
• Talking about holidays
• Making hypothesis and assumptions
• Making programs
• Inviting somebody to do something

Grammar:

• Revisiting previous level's grammar
• Reflexive verbs
• The particle ne
• Temporal prepositions
• Expression of space
• The present perfect of regular and main irregular verbs
• Absolute and relative superlative
• Comparatives
• The particle ci
• The prefix ri- to indicate repetition

Cultural content:

• Names for streets, roads, etc.
• Italian newspapers
• Wishing good luck in Italian

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
• Writing practice – e.g. poems, reviews, etc.
• Plenty of listening activities

Topics/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Describing monuments
• Giving instructions for a touristic itinerary, a recipe, or a set of rules
• Describing people and situations in the past
• Discourse markers: expressing impatience, surprise, and wonder
• Talking about your family, yourself and your origins
• Building friendly, informal relationships
• Making a reservation
• Ordering at a restaurant
• Inviting and accepting an invitation
• Expressing your opinion, making comments about your experiences
• Describing situations and events in the past
• Projects, wishes, hypothesis and resolutions for the future
• Having an argument
• The world of work
• Giving suggestions/advice
• Telling the plot of a movie/a book
• Describing facts and events in former times, telling a story, a fable

Grammar:

• Revisiting previous level's grammar
• The imperative of regular and reflexive verbs
• The Imperfect tense
• Possessive pronouns and adjectives
• The use of the imperfect and the present perfect
• The future
• The present progressive
• Simple and combined prepositions
• Prepositions with verbs
• Absolute superlative
• Direct and indirect object pronouns
• Pronominal verbs
• Position of the object pronouns with modal verbs
• Present conditional
• Relative pronouns
• Simple past of regular and irregular verbs

Cultural content:

• Italian recipes
• Italian family and wedding
• Having an argument with an Italian
• Italians and football
• Work and unemployment: commuters and immigrants

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
• Writing practice – e.g. adverts and short articles
• Plenty of listening activities

Topics/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Studying – inc. history of (personal) education, teaching styles, adult education in Italy
• Relationships – inc. dream partner, challenges, tips, arguments and reconciliation
• Consumerism
• Globalisation
• Cinema and literature
• New media – inc. usage, development, advantages and disadvantages
• Travelling and mobility – inc. making complaints orally or written
• Expressing wishes which did not come true in the past
• Giving suggestions in order to avoid mistakes
• Talking about future events in the past
• Talking about one's regrets
• Encouraging or discouraging someone
• Expressing one's opinion and point of view; asking for clarifications; proposing solutions to a problem

Grammar:

• Revision of simple and combined prepositions
• Past conditional; the future in the past
• Past perfect
• Hypothetical Constructions
• Imperfect subjunctive
• Combined object pronouns
• The Imperative + pronouns
• The formation of adverbs
• Adjectives ending in -oso, -bile
• Conjunctions and connectors

Cultural content:

• Italians and Ferragosto
• Young people and unemployment
• Italian journalism
• Children and bullying in school
• Italians and the immigrants
• The dialects
• Loan words

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
• Writing practice – e.g. letter of complaint
• Plenty of listening activities – e.g. phone messages

Topics/Lexical fields could include the following elements:

• Primarily topics of students' choice
• Expressing expectation, doubts, and hopes
• Talking about social and political issues
• Talking about changes in your life
• Giving instructions
• Analysing and evaluating newspapers articles
• Relating an extraordinary event
• Understanding poetic language
• Perception of time in different cultures
• Work and occupation – inc. Future perspectives, innovative ideas and multicultural approach
• Health – inc. Alternative therapies and history of medical science
• Emotions – inc. Cultural differences in perception and expression
• Europe and the European Community
• Discussing topical news of the day

Grammar:

• Choice of grammar topics primarily according to students' needs
• Uses of Past and Pluperfect Subjunctive
• Nouns ending in -logo and –logia
• The form come se + subjunctive
• The passive forms
• Past infinitive
• Verbs deriving from parts of the body
• Use of the indicative and subjunctive moods
• Direct vs. Reported speech
• Form and uses of the gerund
• Uses of the past participle
• The impersonal construction of reflexive, reciprocal, and pronominal verbs

Cultural content:

• The Italians – inc. inside and outside look, prejudices and stereotypes
• Artistic life in Italy – inc. introduction of various Italian artists and their works
• University and further education in Italy and abroad
• Traditional, peculiar houses: Alberobello's trulli, Matera's sassi
• Italians and strikes
• Idiomatic expressions with animals and parts of the body
• Equal opportunities in Italy
• Italian wines

Skills Work:

• Lots of speaking – inc. Situational exercises & interaction; focus on discussion
• Writing practice – e.g. Short stories, reviews and comments, advertisments
• Plenty of listening activities – authentic sources, e.g. Radio, TV, films and discs
• Advanced pronunciation
• Writing a complaint
• Analysing and evaluating newspapers articles
• Evaluating and analysing advertisements
• Writing a short tale
• Summarising an interview, a biography
• Carrying out an interview
• Reading a book together
• Discussing, complaining, protesting and claiming