IPSL in Siena
Three Week Intensive Italian
All students, whether beginners, intermediate or advanced, begin their Siena Italian Studies experience with our Three Week Intensive Italian Language Course. The course includes 75 total hours of instruction. After an entrance exam, students are placed in appropriate levels and participate every day in classes and activities designed to develop all linguistic abilities, from the basic (listening, reading, writing, speaking) to the integrated (responding to questions, note-taking, transcodification). A wide variety of teaching materials is used, including the Program’s own textbook, "Dimmi Tutto!", to allow each student to best identify and develop his or her abilities. Students also interact with the city environment and help to create their own Italian language study materials. Once a week, students and teachers discuss the dynamics of language learning and the teaching methods used.
Semester Italian
Following the Three Week Intensive Italian Course, students are placed in the appropriate level and continue to study Italian language 2 hours a day, 4 days a week for the duration of the semester. Classes include a variety activities linked to experiences in the city, student presentations, discussions, videos, quizzes, and writing assignments, as well as the study of specific aspects of Italian grammar. The intermediate and advanced levels provide a complete study of grammatical and communicative structures using materials that are varied in both content and type.
Socio-Anthropology: "Institutions in Society"
This course offers an in-depth overview of modern Italian society, taking a sociological, linguistic, anthropological, and historical approach, and incorporating current political and social views of Italian society. The course also includes a series of guest lectures, offered by local experts in the fields of Healthcare, Education and Immigrant and Refugee Assistance that will help students better understand their experiences at respective service sites.
Reflective Writing and Fieldwork Analysis
This course is mandatory for all IPSL students and is a related component to the "Institutions in Society" course. Meeting two hours a week, this course allows and encourages students to reflect upon all aspects of their experience abroad and in particular link observations from the field to in-class projects and papers. Students will be invited to document their observations and reflections made during service hours in their journals and then discuss them in this informal setting with the instructor and their fellow students. This is an essential opportunity to process and make sense of students’ varied experiences during the semester.
