Spring 2023 Courses

Spring 2023 Courses

Language Courses

ITA 003 Elementary Italian

For instructor information, see https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm

Lecture/Discussion–5 hour(s); Laboratory. Pre-requisite(s): ITA 002 or ITA 002S. Students enrolling for the first time at UC Davis are encouraged to take the Italian Placement Exam. GE credit: AH, WC

In this course, students continue to build on the foundations established in the first and second quarters of Elementary Italian to communicating effectively and accurately in the language. Meanwhile, students continue to expand their cultural knowledge about Italy and refine their intercultural competence to negotiate between their identities and backgrounds and Italy’s cultures. How do you make comparisons in Italian? What does the Italian health system look like? Is Italy a land of migrations? As the third and final course of Elementary Italian sequence, Italian 003 delivers the answers to these and other questions, and provides opportunities to discover the geography, history, art, society, and cultural norms of Italy while studying the structure of Italian language. More broadly, this course helps students to acquire important skills that are vital in any professional setting, such as interpersonal skills, creative expression, and cultural sensitivity. Italian 003 meets five days a week, and students are expected to study grammar and complete the homework on their own before each meeting. In class, students gradually absorb the language and recognize the interconnectedness between reading, writing, listening, speaking, and cultural learning. Students can expect the instructor to employ a variety of approaches, including communicative activities, in-pair and group work, grammar reviews, reading sessions, to foster learning. All class meetings are conducted in Italian and in person. Student attendance, participation, and input are essential and encouraged.

ITA 023 Intermediate Italian / CRN 47941         

Dr. Viola Ardeni

Lecture/Discussion–4 hour(s); Laboratory. Pre-requisite(s): ITA 022 or ITA 022S. Students enrolling for the first time at UC Davis are encouraged to take the Italian Placement Exam. GE credit: AH, OL, WC, WE

In this course, students continue to expand upon the linguistic and cultural foundations built in their past learning of Italian through grammar exercises, novel excerpts, essays, short and feature films, and film dubbing. In Italian 023, students also search for the answers to questions like: how do you form hypothetical statements in Italian? Why is film dubbing so popular in Italy? What is a mestiere? They do so by simulating in class the real-life conversations and debates happening in Italy and among Italians right now. As the third and final course of the Intermediate Italian sequence, Italian 023 facilitates the transition between lower and upper-division courses in Italian. It also empowers students to hone your conversational and written Italian, and to develop sophisticated cultural knowledge that puts into dialogue Italian cultures with other cultures. For example, students are invited to explore the world of film dubbing in Italy and produce their own dubbed video, in addition to critically thinking both in speaking and writing about the implications of dubbing. More broadly, this course cultivates skills that are crucial to any future career, such as critical analysis, effective writing, and cultural sensitivity. Italian 023 meets four days a week and students are expected to individually complete their homework before each class meeting. In class, students put into practice the rules, address the exemptions, and share ideas. Students can expect the instructor to employ a variety of approaches, including communicative activities, in-pair and group work, grammar reviews, reading and writing sessions, to foster learning. All class meetings are conducted in Italian and in person. Student attendance, participation, and input are essential and encouraged.

ITA 032 Beginning Italian for Spanish Speakers / CRN 47942

Dr. Viola Ardeni

Lecture/Discussion–5 hour(s). Pre-requisite(s): ITA 031 or ITA 031S. Students enrolling for the first time at UC Davis are encouraged to take the Italian Placement Exam. GE credit: AH, OL, WC

This course continues to bridge the gap between Italian and other Romance languages, with particular emphasis on Spanish, by drawing on the students’ previous and/or inherited knowledge. The goal is not only to keep learning how to communicate effectively and accurately in Italian, but to also continue the acquisition of the needed intercultural competence to negotiate between the students’ linguistic and cultural identities and Italy’s cultures. How do you narrate the past in Italian? How do you call the tale Cenicienta in Italian? What are the nuraghi? As the second and final course of the intensive sequence of Beginning Italian for Spanish speakers, Italian 032 delivers the answers to these and other questions, and provides unique opportunities to discover together the geography, history, art, society, and cultural norms of Italy while studying the structure of Italian language and recognizing connections between Romance languages and cultures and Italy. More broadly, this course helps students to acquire important skills that are vital in any professional setting, such as interpersonal skills, creative expression, effective writing, and cultural sensitivity. Italian 032 meets five days a week, and students are expected to individually study and complete the homework before each meeting. In class, students cover the basic syntactic and morphological parallels between Italian and other Romance languages to enhance their metalinguistic knowledge at an intensive pace. Students can expect the instructor to employ a variety of approaches, including communicative activities, in-pair and group work, grammar reviews, reading sessions, to foster the interconnectedness between reading, writing, listening, speaking, and cultural learning. All class meetings are conducted in Italian and in person. Student attendance, participation and input are essential as well as encouraged.

Undergraduate Courses

ITA 105 Intro to Italian Literature
Prof. Grace Delmolino

Italian literature spans nearly a thousand years. In this course, we'll take a manageable bite out of this rich and delicious literary tradition, surveying some of the best-known (and less-known) works from the 1200s to the present day. We'll consider questions of literary form, personal identity, and cultural exchange throughout the centuries.

ITA 113: Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso)
Prof. Grace Delmolino

Dante’s Divine Comedy is one of the most famous books in the world, inspiring writers from Giovanni Boccaccio to Karl Marx to Jorge Luis Borges. In this course, we’ll read the entire Inferno in the original Italian, following Dante as he journeys through hell with the Roman poet Vergil as his guide. Along the way, we'll linger on Big Questions about life, after-life, damnation, salvation, memory, fame, and what it means to be an ethical person in a complex and ever-changing world.

ITA 198 - Dialects and Contemporary Italy
Prof. Eric Louis Russell

This course introduces you to the study of Italian dialects. Each of you will “adopt” your own dialect (we’ll collaborate to make sure there isn’t significant overlap), to which you’ll apply each of the foci we discuss, comparing and contrasting this to standard Italian and learning more about how it functions within respective sociolinguistic settings. 

The course is split into four mini-units, one introduction and three focus areas: the lexicon, vocabulary and borrowing; phonetics, accent, and pronunciation; and language in society and daily life. No prior linguistics study is required: Students may co-enroll in ITA 23 and ITA 198 with permission of instructor (please email me). 

Another goal of our quarter is to continue progress in language proficiency: reading, writing, speaking, and listening will use Italian to the greatest extent possible. Through this practice, you will have an opportunity to take important steps forward in building your Italian linguistic home – always with generosity and patience toward yourself and to others in the class.

Goals & Objectives

By the end of the quarter, you will understand:

·      The dialectal landscape of contemporary Italy;
·      Foundational linguistic terminology and concepts;
·      How language forms, notably dialects and the standard, co-exist in tension.

By the end of the quarter, you will be able to:

·      Situate the major Italian dialects, both geographically and culturally;
·      Illustrate some of the more important facets of your adopted dialect, contrasting these to standard Italian;
·      Discuss the tensions between how Italian and your dialect are lived out on a daily basis.

You will continue to make proficiency gains as this concerns all four language modalities (listening, speaking, reading, writing).