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Italian Course Outline

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 over a 10-week period, and include typical themes, grammar and vocabulary fields. They are flexible rather than prescriptive, in that our teachers may decide to adapt their learning plans to the specific level, aims and interests of their classes. Use the tabs below to view the relevant Italian course outline for your level. If you want to cover the same course outline in a shorter period of time, we also offer One-Week Online Courses and 5-week Courses.

Beginner 1

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Saying hello and goodbye
  • Introducing yourself
  • Nationality
  • Address and telephone number
  • Asking and saying how one is
  • Asking and giving personal details about one’s job and the languages one speaks
  • Apologising
  • Food and beverages
  • Ordering food and drink at a bar and paying
  • Reading a simple menu
  • Spelling one’s name
  • Talking about one’s preferences
  • Asking and telling the time
  • Talking about one’s everyday routine
  • Referring events in a chronological order
  • Expressing frequency
  • Expressing likes and dislikes
  • The Italian alphabet
  • Numbers 1-100
  • Days of the week
Grammar
  • Personal subject pronouns
  • Definite and indefinite articles
  • Nouns
  • Adjectives
  • Present tense of regular verbs
  • Interrogatives
  • Reflexive verbs
  • Adverbs of frequency
Cultural Content
  • Titles of study in Italian business cards
  • Greetings and gestures
  • The “coffee culture” in Italy
  • The world of work in Italy (male/female jobs)
  • Meals as a family ritual
Skills Work
  • Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
  • Basic pronunciation rules
  • Plenty of listening activities
  • Writing practice – inc. postcards, e-mails, etc.
  • Language learning awareness: reflecting on your learning style

Beginner 2

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Booking a table at a restaurant
  • Understanding simple city directions
  • Understanding a menu
  • Expressing agreement/disagreement
  • Adjectives
  • Some Italian recipes
  • Some expressions of place
  • Talking about past events
  • Writing a greeting card
  • Some expressions of time
  • The connectors allora, prima, poi
  • The date and months of the year
  • Talking about sport and other leisure activities
  • Saying what one can and cannot do
  • Grocery shopping
  • Organising a meal
  • More food
  • Colours
  • Expressing quantity
Grammar
  • The verbs sapere and potere
  • More about the verb piacere
  • Prepositions in and a
  • Regular and irregular past participles
  • The Present Perfect
  • The adverb fa
  • More interrogatives
  • The agreement noun/adjective (plural)
  • Direct object pronouns
  • The particle ne
  • The partitive articles
Cultural Content
  • Etiquette and cultural awareness: dos and dont’s at an Italian restaurant
  • Giving and receiving presents
  • Special events in the Italian cities: the Notte Bianca
Skills Work
  • Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
  • Revisiting pronunciation rules and numbers
  • Plenty of listening activities
  • Writing practice
  • Language learning awareness: learning new vocabulary, dealing with unknown words, approaching grammar, approaching a listening task.

Beginner 3

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Describing a city or a borough
  • Writing an email and inviting a friend over
  • Talking about public transport
  • Organising a city tour
  • Public institutions and offices
  • Adjectives used when describing a flat/house
  • More expression of place
  • Describing people
  • Talking about one’s family
  • Talking about one’s friends and neighbours
  • Family names and adjectives
  • Describing a family picture
  • Designing a website for a course of Italian
  • Talking about places where one has been in the past
  • Understanding brief tourist information
  • Getting information about services at a hotel
  • Booking a hotel room
  • Writing a postcard
  • Describing one’s holiday
  • Organising a weekend in Italy
  • Numbers 101 – 1000
Grammar
  • The expressions c’è/ci sono
  • The verbs venire and volere
  • Combined preposition su+ article
  • The preposition in
  • The possessives
  • Demonstrative pronouns questo and quello
  • Impersonal construction with si
  • The verb dovere
  • The particle ci
Cultural Content
  • The square as a meeting point
  • Gestural expressiveness
  • Means of transport and maps
Skills Work
  • Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
  • Writing practice – e.g. application letter
  • Plenty of listening activities
  • Language learning awareness: Reading and understanding a text; using non-verbal communication; understanding symbols and images

Elementary 1

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Introducing someone
  • Talking about one’s language learning experience
  • Expressing one’s preferences and opinions
  • Giving explanation for one’s choices.
  • Asking information about train timetables and tickets
  • Understanding a train timetable
  • Buying a train ticket at a railway station
  • Expressing a wish
  • Giving a suggestion
  • Asking for something in a polite way
  • Describing clothing
  • Talking about past habits and lifestyles
  • Making comparisons between the past and the present
  • Making a survey about one’s preferences about fashion
  • Taking part to a radio interview
  • Telling a story
  • Describing past habits
  • Talking about one’s past wishes and aspirations
  • Expressing one’s likes and dislikes about music
  • Vocabulary related to music
Grammar
  • Revision: the verb piacere + Infinitive
  • Indirect object pronouns
  • The verb interessare
  • The expressions mi piace di più/di meno
  • The relative superlative
  • The verbs volerci and bisogna
  • The present conditional
  • Qualche
  • The adverbs ending in –mente
  • The imperfect tense
  • The comparatives (regular forms)
  • The use of the preposition da
  • The use of Present Perfect and Imperfect
Cultural Content
  • Italian words used abroad
  • Railway transport in Italy
  • Italian icons and symbols
  • Culture and free time
Skills Work
  • Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
  • Writing practice – e.g. stories, reviews, etc.
  • Plenty of listening activities
  • Language learning awareness: A test about the “multiple intelligences”; reading skills: skimming and scanning; Understanding a radio broadcast; systemising: logic and grammar.

Elementary 2

Topics &Vocabulary
  • Talking about one’s favourite activities and giving a reason
  • Talking about a pleasant experience
  • Describing a recipe or a dish
  • Understanding a recipe
  • Talking about eating habits and lifestyles
  • Talking about setback during one’s holiday
  • Describing a physical problem
  • Having a conversation with a GP
  • Asking and giving suggestions/advice about health problems
  • Understanding an information leaflet in medicine boxes
  • Talking about one’s travelling habits/preferences
  • Understanding and giving advice about travel safety
  • Understanding traffic updates on the radio
  • Reporting a stolen or lost item
  • Describing objects
  • Food and recipes
  • Parts of the body
  • The verbs prendere and mettere with drugs/medicines
  • The car
  • Adjectives to describe objects
Grammar
  • The present perfect of reflexive verbs
  • The relative pronoun che
  • The absolute superlative
  • The position of the adverbs
  • Nouns with irregular plural
  • The formal imperative
  • The use of pronouns with the imperative mood
  • The informal imperative
  • The negative form of the imperative mood
  • The conjunction se
Cultural content
  • Italian recipes
  • Italian body language
  • Emergency numbers in Italy
Skills Work
  • Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
  • Writing practice – e.g. adverts and short articles
  • Plenty of listening activities
  • Language learning awareness: In your own words: paraphrasing; communicating through gestures; learning through the loci.

Elementary 3

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Talking about information and media
  • Understanding the main headlines in a radio news broadcast
  • Announcing scheduled events
  • Talking about future events
  • Choosing and understanding a TV programme
  • Understanding a property advert
  • Asking details about a property
  • Expressing needs
  • Expressing surprise and regret
  • Talking about holiday accommodation options
  • Paying somebody a compliment
  • Preparing one’s profile for a couch-surfing website
  • Talking about holidays and traditional events
  • Inviting someone at an event, accepting and refusing an invitation
  • Expressing one’s intention
  • Going shopping at a local street market.
Grammar
  • Comparisons with di or che
  • Meglio and migliore
  • The future simple
  • The progressive form with stare + gerund
  • The structure che + adjective + noun
  • The direct object pronouns + present perfect
  • Quello and Bello + nouns
  • The forms of buono
  • The imperfect and present perfect of sapere and conoscere
  • The verbs cominciare/ iniziare and finire
Cultural Content
  • Italians and the TV
  • Inviting friends over in Italy
  • Shopping
Skills Work
  • Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
  • Writing practice – e.g. letter of complaint
  • Plenty of listening activities – e.g. phone messages
  • Language learning awareness: Learning using information media; learning using mental images; systemising: logic and vocabulary.

Intermediate 1

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Describing the city and Monuments.
  • Life in the city vs the countryside
  • Italian words used Internationally
  • Italenglish
  • The made in Italy
  • Encourage someone to participate in an activity
  • Show astonishment, relief, joy, or understanding.
  • Tell a cultural or linguistic story by borrowing something.
  • Share your thoughts and indicate your agreement or disagreement
  • Driving In Italy
  • Enquire for assistance
  • State your displeasure state your desires
  • Ask for the reason to inspire and insist on making preparations.
  • Specify a location’s geographic location budget and project
  • Explain a thing describe an item’s construction, use, and features
  • Inquire about, confirm, and explain an intention
  • Express your feelings and moods
  • Express uncertainty, apologise, or defend
Grammar
  • Mastering the trapassato prossimo tense in Italian
  • Using “prima di + infinitive” for expressing time in Italian
  • Hypothesizing with the verb “dovere” in Italian
  • Demystifying combined pronouns in Italian
  • Understanding the negative prefix “in” in Italian
  • Expressing unrealized desires with the conditional past tense in Italian
  • Navigating pronominal particles “ci” and “ne” in Italian
  • Exploring Italian reflexive verbs
  • Using the congiuntivo passato tense in Italian
  • Possessing your Italian with possessive pronouns
  • Reviewing the Italian subjunctive tense
  • Achieving agreement between tenses and moods in Italian
  • Forming Italian words with the suffix “-accio”
  • Using “a patto che,” “purché,” and “a condizione che” with the congiuntivo in Italian
  • Mastering Italian adverbs ending in “-mente”
Cultural Content
  • Italian in the World,
  • Emblematic Cities
  • Italian Fashion and Style
Skills Work
  • Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
  • Writing practice – e.g. adverts and short articles
  • Plenty of listening activities

Intermediate 2

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Establishing Interests and contrasts
  • Giving a justification
  • Enquiring about someone
  • Reporting a mistake
  • Reiterating what someone else has said
  • The news and information in Italy
  • Italian language learnt on social media
  • Texting in Italian
  • Italian gestures
  • The Italian family, festivities and presents
  • Recounting a book’s storyline; expressing interest or disinterest; or expressing a preference
  • Making a recommendation
  • Requesting justification and providing it
  • Asking a question to introduce a new subject.
  • Dispute resolution, verification, and confirmation
  • An analysis of statistics
  • Describing the effects of a fact
  • Stating the benefits and drawbacks of a condition
  • Using irony and humour
Grammar
  • Imperfect subjunctive
  • “As if” + subjunctive
  • Indirect speech
  • The verbs “go” and “come” in indirect speech
  • The construction “as far as I know”
  • The agreement of tenses and moods (part 2)
  • Passive form with “essere” and “venire”
  • Simple past tense
  • Historical present tense
  • “Although”, “even though”, “despite”, “in spite of” + subjunctive; “even if” + indicative
  • Special comparative and superlative forms
  • “Fare” + infinitive
  • Impersonal form of a reflexive verb (ci si)
  • The adverb “mica”
  • Conditional perfect as future in the past
  • Second type of hypothetical period (possibility)
Cultural Content
  • Italy lived as a foreigners
  • Art and Literature of the 1900s
  • Formal “Lei” vs Informal “tu”
  • The art of “Gelato”
Skills Work
  • Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
  • Writing practice – e.g. letter of complaint
  • Plenty of listening activities – e.g. phone messages

Intermediate 3

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Describing the life of a historical figure
  • Famous Italian characters
  • The Romans: Emperors and more.
  • Italian Regions: Beaches and Mountains
  • Travelling in Italy
  • The ticket office
  • Loved Italian places
  • Mistakes Italians make with the Italian Language
  • Narrating a trip and expressing disbelief
  • Asking a question indirectly
  • Inquiring about the features of a place
  • Asking for further explanations
  • Requesting confirmation
  • Reporting what someone else said
  • Highlighting the beauty of a place
  • Expressing dissatisfaction
  • Talking about language mistakes
  • Using irony
  • Softening the tone of a discussion
  • Expressing strong disagreement
  • Making hypotheses in the past
  • Reflecting on language learning
Grammar
  • “Adjective in -bile
  • The third person plural in impersonal function
  • The position of pronouns with the gerund
  • Indirect interrogative sentence
  • Indirect speech with the main sentence in the past
  • “Prima che” – “Prima di”
  • Passive form with “andare”
  • The past subjunctive
  • Third type conditional (past)
  • Some adverbial expressions
  • Past participle of the gerund
  • Infinitive past – After + past infinitive
  • Infinitive past – After + past infinitive
Cultural Content
  • Stereotypes
  • The Italians who made the history
  • “How do we say…?”
Skills Work
  • Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
  • Writing practice – e.g. adverts and short articles
  • Plenty of listening activities

Upper Intermediate Lower

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Studying – Talk about habits related to school memories, adult education in Italy; Expressing opinions, agreement or disagreement
  • Food– personal tastes and relation with food, cooking procedures, recipes
  • Expressing a preference
  • News, Events and Information – old and new media
  • Expressing percentages and statistics, framing facts in the past, arguing and discussing points of view.
  • Working – employment and workplace
  • Expressing oneself formally, clearly and courteously
  • Exchanging complex information and advice
  • Emotions – express emotions based on different registers, describe someone physically and temperamentally, complaining
Grammar
  • Use of the auxiliary in the perfect past tense
  • Revision of past tenses of the indicative
  • Pronominal verbs Cavarsela and Entrarci
  • Future perfect
  • Subjunctive with the indefinite pronouns and in relative sentences
  • Verbs with prepositions
  • Adverbs of time
  • Numerals as nouns
  • Use of conditional to express uncertainty
  • Indirect interrogative sentences and indirect discourse
  • Gerund with causal and hypothetical function
  • Feminine and masculine professions
  • Adjectives derived from nouns
Cultural Content
  • Education in Italy and abroad
  • Italian cooking and recipes
  • Italian journalism
  • Italian job market
Skills Work
  • Reading Italian magazines / newspapers, Internet and contemporary literature
  • Speaking – acquiring greater linguistic fluency and formal accuracy
  • Writing practice – e.g. complex texts (e-mail, recipe, article, letter to a newspaper)

Upper Intermediate Higher

Topics & Vocabulary
  • Cinema – Talk about movies, telling the plot and reviewing movies, recognize film genres, express tastes and preferences, expressing oneself ironically
  • Museums – Starting and ending a presentation, describing an image, specifying details. Express agreement and / or disagreement
  • Environment – Talk about environmental problems and sustainability; expressing a judgment, an evaluation; expressing a concern, making proposals
  • Express wishes
  • Culture – Talk about a cultural event in details.
  • Expressing doubts, explaining something, asking and giving advice.
  • Interviews – Conduct an interview, contradict a widespread opinion, point out and discuss
Grammar
  • Position of adjectives
  • Use of subjunctive with Purché and with negative sentences
  • Use of subjunctive with comparative sentences and consecutive expressions
  • Concordance of tenses in the subjunctive
  • Fare + infinitive
  • Revision of prepositions IN and A
  • Infinitive used as a noun
  • Relative pronouns: Il cui and Il che
  • Different uses of future tenses
  • Position of definite article with geographic names
  • Revision of present and past gerund
  • Concessive gerund
  • Expressions with pronominal verbs
  • Plural of compound words
Cultural Content
  • Italian cinema
  • Italian museums, artists, works of art
  • Italian geography and local cultures
  • Environment
  • Italian dialects and colloquial forms
Skills Work
  • Reading Italian magazines / newspapers, Internet and contemporary literature
  • Speaking – practicing oral interaction based on different registers
  • Writing practice – e.g. complex texts (e-mail, recipe, article, letter to a newspaper)
  • Plenty of Listening – e.g. formal or informal conversations in private or public places, interviews, etc.

Advanced

Functional Language
  • Developing an argument and defending a point of view
  • Challenging arguments and opinions
  • Expressing beliefs and expressing opinions tentatively
  • Summarising information, ideas and arguments
  • Deducing and inferring
  • Justifying an argument
  • Expressing caution and expressing reservation
  • Expressing empathy and sympathy
  • Evaluating different standpoints
Lexis
  • Vocabulary specific to the topic and subject areas
  • Phrases and expressions relating to the language functions listed above
Topics & Culture
  • International events, current political and economic issues
  • The internet, global communication, social media
  • Diversity, equal opportunity, social injustice, human rights
  • The future of the planet, climate change, global warming
  • Well-being, mental health, stress management
Grammar
  • Formation of the superlative of adjectives
  • Using prefixes arci-, stra–, super– and iper
  • Augmentative prefixes with verbs and adjectives
  • Simple and earlier future in negative sentences
  • Subjunctive in displaced sentences
  • Use of indicative past tense and distant past
  • Concordance of tenses in the subjunctive
  • Defective verbs of the past participle
  • Regional uses of the verbs essere and stare
  • Exhortative dubitative and optative subjunctive in independent sentences
  • Uses of the present and past participle
  • Adjectives Bello and Buono
  • Use of the simple future or the past conditional to express posteriority
  • Present and past infinitive
  • Infinitive ruled by the prepositions da and per
  • Other uses of the prepositions da
  • Use of the adverb Addirittura
  • The imperative in indirect speech
Pronuntiation
  • The clear pronunciation of topic and subject-area specific vocabulary
  • Sounds with minimal interference from the first language
  • Various features of pronunciation which only occasionally deviate from an internationally intelligible model
  • A range of stress and intonation patterns, pitch and volume to convey subtle shifts in meaning and attitude

Proficiency

Functional Language
  • All of the functions at Advanced level
  • Asserting
  • Denying
  • Softening and downplaying propositions
  • Contradicting
  • Implying
  • Affirming
Lexis
  • A good command of a very broad lexical repertoire
  • A wide range of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms
  • Phrases and expressions relating to the language functions listed above
Topics & Culture
  • Global economy and the influence of global politics
  • The global rise of the far right in the 21st century
  • Internet fraud, scamming, money laundering
  • The impact of Covid on the workplace and across industry
  • Love, marriage and sexuality in the 21st Century
Grammar
  • Foreign words and loans
  • The neologisms of the internet
  • Verbs that want the preposition di
  • Verbs that change meaning if followed by the subjunctive
  • Particular uses of the conditional
  • Narrative imperfect and other particular uses
  • Referring to something or someone indefinite
  • Different uses of che; che conjunction and relative pronoun
  • Meaning of the expressions pure, appunto, man mano, assai, anzi, a tale proposito
  • Various meanings of addirittura
  • Reflective form and impersonal form
  • Difference between reflexive and impersonal si
  • Use of the future in the narration of past events
  • Passive form with essere, venire, andare
  • The hypothetical period: hypothesis in the present and in the past
Pronuntiation
  • Produce individual sounds so as to be fully understood, with only a rare sound that deviates from an internationally intelligible model
  • Stress and intonation patterns which are recognisably specific to the language without any lapses in intelligibility

Understanding Language Levels

If you are taking a language course with Cactus you can find out more about our language levels and how you can track your progress using the ‘can do statements’ below. These statements outline the key things that you should be able to say and understand once you have completed each level. Can do statements are officially recognised as a set of performance-related scales describing what a learner is able to do in a foreign language, in accordance with the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) and the CEFR defined levels.

CEFR Levels

If you are taking a language course with Cactus you can find out more about our language levels and how you can track your progress using the ‘can do statements’. These statements outline the key things that you should be able to say and understand once you have completed each level. Can do statements are officially recognised as a set of performance-related scales describing what a learner is able to do in a foreign language, in accordance with the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) and the CEFR defined levels.

Beginner (A1)

  • You can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type
  • You can introduce yourself and others
  • You can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where you live, what you do, people you know and things you have
  • You can ask and give directions
  • You can order food and drink
  • You can make very basic travel and accommodation arrangements
  • You can have a basic conversation, provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

Elementary (A2)

  • You can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas including basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography and employment
  • You can communicate in simple and routine tasks, requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters
  • You can describe, in simple terms, aspects of your background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need
  • You can comfortably ‘get by’ when visiting the country, albeit with some difficulty.

Intermediate (B1)

  • You can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc.
  • You can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken
  • You can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest
  • You can describe experiences and events
  • You can talk about dreams, hopes and ambitions
  • You can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans
  • You could consider working in the country using the language (e.g. bar/counter work, waiting service in cafes or basic office work).

Upper Intermediate (B2)

  • You can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in your field of specialisation.
  • You can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible, without strain for either party.
  • You can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue, giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.
  • You can do business with speakers of the language in most run-of-the-mill situations.

Advanced (C1)

  • You can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning
  • You can express yourself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions
  • You can use the language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes
  • You can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, logical flow of text, and clear awareness of the audience.

Proficient (C2)

  • You can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read
  • You can summarise information from different spoken and written sources
  • You can reconstruct arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation
  • You can express yourself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely
  • You can differentiate finer shades of meaning, even in the most complex situations.

How to book with Cactus

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