Studying Italian continuers (2 Viewers)

[Therese98]

Ciao tutti!
I would really, really like some advice from some previous Italian Continuers students about how they studied Italian and the best ways of improving in each of the skills (Reading and Responding, Writing, Listening and Speaking).
I particularly need help with listening, as well as reading and responding. Any advice would be fantastic!
(searching for Italian continuers students, past and present)

 

[sweetalmond]

TIPS AND ADVICE:
1. Practice, practice, practice any of the above skills you mentioned
2. Watch Italian news, Italian shows to better immerse yourself. This will improve your listening. The only way to become better at something is to keep doing it. Find some easier listening tapes, that are at your level of Italian. for example, Italian news might be a bit difficult for you. Search the internet for some audios that you can also read along to. Type Languagesguide on google. It might have useful resources.
3. Try to think in that language. Think about how you would say something in italian in your head
4. Writing: aim to write one Italian writing piece a week. Not kidding. The more writing practice the better. It can be postcards, letters, messages just anything. Maybe write your school diary in Italian so if you have history you'd write it in Italian!
5. Change the language settings on phone, email, ipad etc. to Italian so you're forced to work out the apps when they are in Italian
6. Reading and responding is annoying. Especially when you need to answer a text. Like above, you need to practice. Ask your teacher for a new writing piece once a week.
7. Language requires committment and practice. You need to be constantly doing these things to improve . If you don't practice it'll all be lost.
Hope I helped. If so, please like my post.

 

[ccanaris]

It's also important to remember that anything you learn can be used for your other skills

Eg for speaking I was giving a big booklet which contained 10000 questions. What I'd do was compile the questions into every topic/subtopic and try to answer all of them as detailed and sophisticated as possible. I would then give these to my teacher, she would mark them then I'd rewrite them so I had a 'master' set of perfect Italian notes to memorise and intergrate into my speaking and writing tests. I would also arrange to have a conversation with my teacher once a fortnight so I could speak someone. It also doesn't hurt to have little conversations with yourself if your not of Italian background

Listening and reading assessments the questions are a similar style so that helps.
Find an Italian singer that you like. For me it was Nek. The day of any exams I would be really calm and listen to my favourite French/Italian songs to get me in the zone. It was fun . Watching movies helps a lot too. It's a good excuse for some guilt free relaxation time because technically you are still learning. In the beginning all I could watch were disney movies as they were really slow since they are designed for children. If a movie is too difficult you can try putting on the Italian subtitles so you can read as you watch as well as look up any unfamiliar vocab.

Past papers are extremely important. Every 2 weeks my teacher would give me a past paper and a listening to do. Do them! Start with beginners and eventually move on to continuers when you are comfortable. You won't regret it. It will be a bit slow at first but eventually you will be churning them out and using them as a means to procrastinate doing English as I have done

Start practicing as early as possible! The best/worst thing about languages, (I study 5 units Italian Continuers, Extension and French beginners so I may be a little experienced) is that you cannot cram. Come assessment time I would do a past paper for each of my languages and watch my text for Italian extension but mostly focus on my other subjects. It lead to a much less stressful experience. Even now when I'm doing my HSC, I am studying, but mostly out of guilt. I'm focusing on Italian extension because it's a bit of a different story but I can give you advice on extension if you wish. I have realised there is not much study I can do but my languages are going to be my best exams because a) I love them and b) I have been consistent this year.

Hope this helps xx

 

[Therese98]

Thank you both so much for your fantastic advice! It's a great help to have some support, particularly since I'm doing Italian by distance, so thank you!

Just a couple of other questions; How exactly do I connect with Italian TV channels? Do I have to have Austar or are they on at a specific time each day on normal TV?
Thank you again!

 

[laura-jayne14]

Thank you both so much for your fantastic advice! It's a great help to have some support, particularly since I'm doing Italian by distance, so thank you!

Just a couple of other questions; How exactly do I connect with Italian TV channels? Do I have to have Austar or are they on at a specific time each day on normal TV?
Thank you again!

Buongiorno!
I watch Italian news on SBS. Also looking up kids shows on YouTube is good too e.g. Postman Pat, Peppa Pig. Also alot of DVD's have subtitle/language opens such as; Water for Elephants, Yours, Mine & Ours and Greys Ananomy. There are also alot of websites that stream Italian radio stations.
Buona Fortuna!
Laura

 

[cfar]

Hey @ccanaris,

I was just reading your post and you mentioned something about a big booklet of questions and your “master” set of Italian notes. I am starting up Italian continuers this year and am very nervous about speaking. I am so confident for every other mode but speaking. I feel like I can’t speak impromptu and getting my hands on something like what you have would be gold for me. It would help me so so so much. So I was just wondering if you would be so kind as to give me a copy and tremendously benefit my marks. I would really appreciate it if you would do this for me as I would really really really like a copy. I would be very grateful if you did this for me. Hoping for a reply! Cfar