Our Approach to Teaching

At Italia 500 each lesson is based on a real life dialogue, a real life Italian text related to the dialogue and a cultural segment.

The dialogues deal with both practical topics - like ordering in a bar or a restaurant, asking for directions, buying tickets and catching public transport - and conversational topics - like talking about yourself, asking people about themselves, inviting people out, talking about your and someone else’s experiences, likes and dislikes, opinions, films, travel plans, describing people and places,and so on.

The real life Italian texts range from train timetables or restaurant menus, to newspaper or magazine articles, extracts from the Italian television news, Italian movies, books, etc.

Each dialogue is studied in depth: we examine the vocabulary, useful expressions, phrases, and grammar. Then we role play the dialogue in class over and over until you can hold that particular dialogue with ease and confidence.

Once you have learnt the dialogue, we expand on it, bring in new elements, modify it to suit different circumstances and situations, and link it to previous dialogues. We then study the real life Italian text to further practise our hearing and reading skills, and provide further “prompts” for conversation and role-playing. The dialogues are accompanied by the Italia 500 “Practice” CDs which play a key role in helping you absorb and practise during the week the language covered in class. For more information regarding the Italia 500 "Practice" CDs, click here. 

The real life dialogues are generally set in areas of particular interest in Italy. For example, several lessons at the Intermediate I level are based in Venice. This gives us the opportunity to study in greater depth in our cultural segments the history of Venice and the Veneto region (which we touch upon in the Beginner I course). We study its art, cuisine, music, the problems facing the city, traditional feasts (like the Carnevale and the Festa del Redentore), we take "day-trips" to Padova and Vicenza, and lots more.

To really give you a feel of the places, the people, and the issues, we use an enormous amount of visual material, such as slides, extracts from documentaries and films, and our own videos shot specifically during our visits to Italy.

At Italia 500 you start speaking “real” Italian from the very first lesson. As you progress, your vocabulary expands, the range of topics and situations you can handle and your confidence increases, you speak for longer periods, you start seeing the patterns in the language (“patterns” is how we think of grammar) and it all starts falling into place.

For enquiries, email us at enquiries@italia500.com.au, or call Italia 500 on 9261 1795.

"Excellent teaching method, fantastic teachers, lovely atmosphere, the friendliest fellow students.Viva Italia 500!." M.Green