This CILS A1 Syllabus contains an overview of what a student is expected to know at the A1 level.
After completing the CILS A1 level course, you should be able to accomplish the following:
-> Greet people
-> Talk about yourself
-> Talk about where you live
-> Talk about your family members
-> Talk about your likes and dislikes
-> Engage in a simple buy-and-sell situation
-> Ask about the day, the time and the date
-> Accept and refuse
-> Read simple notices, posters and catalogues
-> Fill in a simple form
-> Write a simple postcard

This CILS A2 Syllabus contains an overview of what a student is expected to know at the CILS A2 level.
After completing the CILS A2 level course, you should be able to accomplish the following:

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
• 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:

• 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
• 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:

• The square as a meeting point
• Gestural expressiveness
• Means of transport and maps
• 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. application letter
• Plenty of listening activities
• Language learning awareness: Reading and understanding a text; using non-verbal communication; understanding symbols and images
• 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.

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
• 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:

• 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.
• 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:

• Italian recipes
• Italian body language
• Emergency numbers in Italy
• Italians and the TV
• Inviting friends over in Italy
• Shopping

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.
• 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.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Describing monuments
• Giving instructions for a touristic itinerary, a recipe, or a set of rules
• Describing people and situations in the past
• Talking about your family, yourself and your origins
• 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
• Agreeing & disagreeing
• Having an argument
• Building friendly, informal relationships
• Projects and wishes for the future
• Hypothesis, suppositions and resolutions
• The world of work
• Telling the plot of a movie/a book
• Streets and street signs
• Excuses and accepting excuses
• Talking about cities and culture
• Conflict and resolution
• Linking past to present
• Making friends – talking about self, states of mind and feelings

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
• Exclamatives
• Pronouns and verbs

Cultural Content:

• Rome: Art, History, cuisine
• Italian cooking & recipes
• Italian family and wedding
• Having an argument with an Italian
• Discourse markers: expressing impatience, surprise, and wonder
• 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. adverts and short articles
• Plenty of listening activities
• Lots of speaking – inc. situational exercises & interaction
• Writing practice – e.g. letter of complaint
• Plenty of listening activities – e.g. phone messages