Quality standard in teaching italian as a foreign language
Our Italian school for foreigners is accredited and recognised by numerous “third parties” who have inspected and certified the reliability and the professionalism of our school and teachers.
All of our teachers, as well as having a degree, have also gained certification in “Teaching Italian as a Foreign Language” at a second level (DILS II) from the University per Stranieri di Perugia which is a specific certification guaranteeing the essential teaching knowledge and competences to carry out in an efficient way with wider knowledge of the profession of an Italian teacher to foreigners. Many of our teachers have also gained the DITALS qualification from the University per Stranieri of Siena and a few have the Master ITALS qualification from the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice. You can be sure of one thing: we know what we are doing!
Our courses are structured to conform to European standards for language learning and in particular follow the CEFR – Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and ALTE.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages divides learners’ levels into three broad divisions (“Basic User”, “Independent User” and “Proficient User”), that can themselves be divided into two levels, making a total of 6 levels. They are used to describe in detail what an individual is capable of doing in the said language at each level and in the different abilities: written comprehension, oral comprehension, written production and spoken production. Read here to find out more about CEFR – Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
At our school, in order to offer our students the correct class and more efficient learning, the levels of our programmes are divided as follows:
- Absolute Beginners
- A1 pre-elementary
- A1 elementary
- A2 pre-intermediate
- A2 pre-intermediate +
- B1 intermediate
- B1 intermediate +
- B2 superior
- B2 superior +
- C1 advanced
- C2 advanced +
THIS IS OUR USUAL TIME TABLE *
| 08:30 – 09:25 | One-to-one or Two-to-one lessons |
| 09:30 – 11:00 | Group courses: communicative task session |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:30 – 13:00 | Group courses: language analysis session |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch break |
| 14:00 – 14:55 | One-to-one and Intensive and Culture courses |
| 15:00 – 15:55 | One-to-one and Intensive and Culture courses |
*This time-table may change according to the school’s organizational needs.
On rare occasions (e.g. high season) Group Classes may be scheduled in the afternoon (14:00 – 15:30 / 16:00 – 17:30).
COURSE DURATION AND ENTRANCE TEST
Students can sign up for a course for a certain number of weeks, depending on their time availability and interest. On the first day of class, the student has to take a placement test (written and oral), on the basis of which he/she will enter a class with the appropriate level.
DIDACTIC MATERIAL
The didactic material is composed of authentic texts (newspapers, magazine articles, movie dialogues, radio, cinema, TV, letters, etc.) and own material produced by the teachers of Babilonia. The learning progress and the analysis of the students’ acquisition processes are constantly monitored by the teachers during a weekly didactic meeting in which the teachers share what has happened in the lessons, the activities and didactic exercises carried out, in order to guarantee to each student a correct development of the learning and acquisition phases, and a level suitable to his/her own linguistic competences.
IN CLASS
The maximum number of students is 12 per class, although the average number is 4-6 students per class. This reduced number of students favors the development and active communication on the part of the students and gives each student more opportunities to be the protagonist of the classes.
TEACHER ROTATION
During the course, there is a weekly rotation of teachers to give students the opportunity to hear different voices, rhythms and intonations, and to interact with different personalities and styles in the course of their language learning.