This introduction deals with the structure of the Italian course and the specific methods it uses. For a more general overview of the motivations and principles behind the course (and Language Speedway in general), have a look at the Home Page.
The course is divided into two parts: Pronunciation and Grammar. The two parts are largely independent of each other and we recommend working through both parts at the same time. Each part is presented as a series of numbered lessons that are designed to be followed in order.
Exercise System
Both parts of the course make extensive use of an intelligent exercise system that’s designed to help you learn and remember large quantities of information and to get lots of practice with all the key language skills.
If you haven’t already done so, you should try out the demonstration so that you’re familiar with how the system works before you do any of the exercises in the course:
Part A: Pronunciation Guide
The Pronunciation Guide covers key Italian spelling and pronunciation topics in depth. The topics are dealt with in order of importance, with particular priority given to those areas where Italian and English differ the most. For this reason it’s recommended that you do the lessons in the order presented, however the lessons are largely independent of each other so you can do them in a different order if you prefer.
Each lesson generally consists of a detailed explanation of one pronunciation topic followed by an exercise that will help you learn the material covered in the lesson. The text of the lesson is accompanied by dozens of audio recordings so that you can listen to the pronunciations as you read.
Part B: Grammar
The Grammar section is the main part of the course - it’s where you’ll learn to speak Italian. Don’t let the title of this section throw you - we just use the word “grammar” to mean “everything other than pronunciation”. We actually avoid dealing with formal grammatical rules as much as possible - instead you’ll learn by actually using the language.
The material is presented as a series of numbered lessons, each lesson building on what you learnt in the previous one.
Phrase Acquisition
The lessons are based on a principle we call phrase acquisition. In each lesson you’ll learn (acquire) a set of model phrases that exemplify one or more grammatical concepts. By learning the phrases you’ll automatically (and to some extent subconsciously) learn the underlying grammar, without having to memorize a lot of formal rules.
More specifically, each lesson proceeds as follows:
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Preview. We show you the list of model phrases for the lesson along with audio recordings and English translations. This will give you a broad idea of what you’re about to learn.
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Vocabulary Exercises. You’ll work through a set of exercises designed to teach you the new vocabulary used in the lesson. By getting all the new vocabulary out of the way first it will be easier for you to focus on the grammar and sentence structure in the next step.
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Phrase Exercises. This is the most important step. You’ll work through a set of exercises where you’ll learn all the model phrases for this lesson. To a certain extent you’ll initially learn the phrases as “set phrases”, without necessarily understanding the new grammatical structures that you’re using. As you proceed through the exercises, however, you’ll notice patterns emerge and you’ll start to work out your own rules for the new grammar.
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Key Concepts. Finally we’ll describe the most important grammatical concepts explicitly. This will help to reinforce what you already worked out for yourself and to fill in any details that you may have missed.
Phrase Exercises
The key step in each lesson is the phrase exercises. This is where you’ll spend most of your time. This method of learning phrases and working out the grammar for yourself has at least two important benefits:
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When you work out the rules for yourself they’ll make more sense to you and you’ll be more likely to remember them.
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This method of learning is very similar to the way we all learnt our first language - we worked out the rules for ourselves based on the large variety of phrases that we heard. We all have an area in our brain that is specialised for this task and it works mostly at a subconscious level.
Although this natural language-learning faculty may be less effective in adults than in children, we’re helping it along by presenting the information in a very orderly and focused way. Each lesson isolates a small number of grammatical concepts and it presents many examples of those concepts in a short space of time. This gives your brain the best chance of absorbing the information at a subconsious level. After you’ve been doing the phrase exercises for a while you’ll find that you can start to form sentences without having to consciously think about the rules.
Scope
The course covers the most crucial areas of Italian grammar needed for basic conversation: masculine and feminine nouns, articles, plural formation, adjective agreement, possessives, present tense verb endings, numbers, negative sentences, questions, formal and informal modes of address and common prepositions, pronouns and adverbs. If you complete all these lessons you’ll have the grammar you need to express most ideas using simple, correct Italian.
