Reviewing and Expanding Functional Italian Skills

Con fantasia provides teachers and intermediate students of Italian
with a source of language, discourse, and contemporary cultural
topics that make the review of Italian a pleasant and meaningful
experience, taking the language beyond the text. To develop the
ability to use the language in an autonomous, spontaneous, and
creative way, learners must go beyond a grammar and vocabulary
review format, with materials and activities designed to help them
become more consciously aware of the uses of the language they are
studying. The primary purpose of this book is to allow students to
realize this goal?to become autonomous speakers of Italian--,
and it encourages them throughout to use the language on their own
terms for specific purposes.

The learning flow (1) starts from a spontaneous and creative recall
phase (Avvio), (2) moves through a formal review phase
(Vocabolario, Grammatica, and Comunicazione), (3) engages students
textually with cultural information (Nota culturale and Dalla
letteratura italiana), (4) provides opportunities for the use of
the language in a creative fashion (Con fantasia), and (5) exposes
students to the use of the language in the framework of our
constantly changing world (Dal mondo italiano and Navigare su
Internet). The many opportunities provided for students to express
themselves, at each stage, are designed to encourage confidence
from the very start.

The two guiding pedagogical principles behind Con fantasia are (1)
the notion that students need to understand how language reflects
cultural groupthink and (2) the common experience that intermediate
students continue to struggle to master the uses of language,
especially those that are derived from verbs. The former underlies
the organization of each chapter around one or two themes; the
latter is the reason why the book is divided into three main parts
that reflect the three basic temporal uses of verbs?the
present (first five chapters), the past (chapters 6-10), and the
future and conditional (chapters 11-15). The subjunctive is
presented alongside the indicative tenses so that students can
master its uses early on, rather than wait to practice it in later
chapters.