Avanti!

An Interesting Way to Learn Italian Italy has a striking culture that contains one of the beautiful Roman languages spoken in Europe. As with any other language, there are many Italian language learning books that focus on repetitive grammar drills or boring vocabulary exercises in their attempts to teach the Italian language. Janice M. Aski and Diane Musumeci present a different approach for beginning learners, offering an engaging way to learn Italian quickly through fun exercises and fresh interactive activities in Avanti! Targeted towards fast learners looking to learn efficiently, Avanti offers not only a textbook filled with focused vocabulary, exercises for meaningful interaction, and manageable grammar training, but also includes a free interactive online learning center which provides access to interviews with Italian speakers, games, and extra drills designed to reinforce all material learned in its chapters. Avantis innovative techniques, focused on interaction and incorporation of culture, provide a fun and easy way to learn the Italian language. Because each chapter in the textbook follows along the same format, learners know what to expect as they embark on each new section. Each of Avantis 16 chapters begins with a strategies of communication section which presents commonly used phrases that are useful but might not be found in normal American dialogue. This provides insight into the Italian culture as learners get a feel for what it would be like to actually speak to an Italian citizen and often introduces the new topic of the section. The lesson then continues with the chapters main vocabulary, supplementing new terms with beautifully illustrated pictures that help to enforce the words rather than just giving a list of vocabulary and their definitions. Of course, if the reader does not understand the word through the illustrations, they can always find a list of all of the new words and their definitions at the end of every section. The chapter then moves on to focus

on the structural component of language which incorporates the grammar section generally focusing on new verb forms and structure rules, which is what most of the difficult activities focus on. The chapter then finishes up with a culture section which provides insight to differences between life in Italy and life in America. Due to the books structure, the book is easy to follow and progresses easily through all the basics of days, clothes, food, stores, etc. One unique aspect of the book is the importance it places on interaction. The book does not simply present drills to be repeated over and over but provide ample opportunities for the learners to practice the newly acquired language skills through different speaking scenarios in which the material can be used. These sketches range from actual dialogue that could be spoken to outrageous lines that would never be used in normal day to day conversation but help to reinforce the material and keep it interesting. The dialogues help incorporate the material and learners get a lot practice using newly learned concepts in speaking both to classmates and to the teacher. The book also encourages group work in this way, requiring each person to participate in some way to the conversation. The presented situational sketches makes sure learners apply new material to their own lives by asking the learners to answer personal questions about their lives including their family, their favorite activities, and their plans for the future. The book also makes sure to take advantage of any possible learning opportunity for students by engaging the learners as often as possible. For example, instead of simply providing all conjugations for each verb type when teaching a new verb form, the book asks the learners to look for clues in what they do provide to infer what they do not. Another way in which the book engages the learners is by implementing many different types of activities to prevent learners from becoming bored like crossword puzzles, matching, and fill in the blank. In one chapter, it

even asked the readers to adjust the Romeo and Juliet story to fit modern times. These engaging activities kept the students interested and excited to learn. However, the most useful tool the book has to offer is the free online learning center. This center allows student to follow up on drills, listen to actual Italian speakers ask questions, and watch videos on life in Italy. The videos and listening exercises give learners even more exposure to speakers who actually speak the language and a chance to view the culture in a more fascinating way. The online center also offers pronunciation sections for each chapter which the plain textbook cannot, allowing readers to listen to subtle differences in pronunciations and to attempt to differentiate them. The online center is also convenient for the teacher as it allows the teacher to assign homework easily instead of having to collect it every day in class. Though the book is exceptional with its teaching methods, there are some aspects of the book that can be improved. The book moves very slowly at the beginning and speeds up and is very fast at the end. Though this may benefit learners as to make sure to teach only up to their level of understanding, but it makes learning difficult at the end as in one chapter where readers had to learn three different verb conjugations which were very similar to each other. Another flaw in the book is that the book complementary to read more is in the back of the book, easily forgotten. What is disappointing is that this section had a lot of explanations that would have made learning material in each chapter easier if it had been incorporated in the chapter instead of just being added at the end of the book. Overall, however, the book is an excellent textbook for both teaching and learning Italian. The engaging exercises allow learners to practice speaking and writing in learning vocabulary, grammar, and cultural aspects. It provides ample opportunities for students to build up their

conversational skills as well and online center encourages practice in a fun and attractive manner. The book requires a lot of input from students which is a great way to keep learners involved instead of just giving everything to the readers and expecting them to memorize it. It is also very useful for teachers in giving them many opportunities to allow their students to work in groups.

Reference Aski, Janice M., and Diane Musumeci. Avanti! Beginning Italian. 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill Humanities Social, 2007.