Bachelor of Science - Italian - Secondary Education 7-12

The BS in Italian prepares students interested in teaching the language at the high school level. Classes are grounded in Italian authentic materials that include cinema, literature, food, music, art, and history among other areas and are designed to develop and enhance students’ ability to speak, write, listen, and comprehend Italian. The classes are devised to ensure that students achieve the highest levels of linguistic fluency and cultural competence. They will fulfill the courses required to earn a teaching certification through the College of Education; they will also complete one semester of student teaching. The Department of World Languages and Literatures prepares undergraduate students to work in nearly every field, including translation and interpretation, business and marketing, federal and local government, military and public service, law and non-profit work, medicine and healthcare, science and technology, media and communication, and travel and tourism. Students who graduate with a B.S. in French, Italian, and Spanish will be able to reach the Advanced Low level on the ACTFL proficiency scale. Upon graduation, students will be able to do the following in the target language: Participate in most informal and some formal conversations on topics related to school, home, and leisure activities and on some topics related to employment, current events, and matters of public and community interest (communicative competence). Understand short conventional narrative and descriptive texts with a clear underlying structure, understanding the main facts and some supporting details (listening ability). Understand the main ideas and some supporting details of conventional narrative and descriptive texts with a clear underlying structure and high-frequency vocabulary and structures (reading ability). Speak by combining and linking sentences into connected discourse of paragraph length, handling appropriately the essential linguistic challenges presented by a complication or an unexpected turn of events (speaking ability). Complete written work in the target language in basic work/academic scenarios, narrating and describing in major time frames with some control, and composing simple summaries on familiar topics (writing ability). Explain some diversity among cultural products (such as literary works, films, music and the arts) and practices and how it relates to cultural perspectives (intercultural competence). Use communicative strategies such as rephrasing and circumlocution (strategic ability).