Con Fantasia

Con fantasia provides teachers and intermediate students of Italianwith a source of language, discourse, and contemporary culturaltopics that make the review of Italian a pleasant and meaningfulexperience, taking the language beyond the text. To develop theability to use the language in an autonomous, spontaneous, andcreative way, learners must go beyond a grammar and vocabularyreview format, with materials and activities designed to help thembecome more consciously aware of the uses of the language they arestudying. The primary purpose of this book is to allow students torealize this goal?to become autonomous speakers of Italian--,and it encourages them throughout to use the language on their ownterms for specific purposes.The learning flow (1) starts from a spontaneous and creative recallphase (Avvio), (2) moves through a formal review phase(Vocabolario, Grammatica, and Comunicazione), (3) engages studentstextually with cultural information (Nota culturale and Dallaletteratura italiana), (4) provides opportunities for the use ofthe language in a creative fashion (Con fantasia), and (5) exposesstudents to the use of the language in the framework of ourconstantly changing world (Dal mondo italiano and Navigare suInternet). The many opportunities provided for students to expressthemselves, at each stage, are designed to encourage confidencefrom the very start.The two guiding pedagogical principles behind Con fantasia are (1)the notion that students need to understand how language reflectscultural groupthink and (2) the common experience that intermediatestudents continue to struggle to master the uses of language,especially those that are derived from verbs. The former underliesthe organization of each chapter around one or two themes; thelatter is the reason why the book is divided into three main partsthat reflect the three basic temporal uses of verbs?thepresent (first five chapters), the past (chapters 6-10), and thefuture and conditional (chapters 11-15). The subjunctive ispresented alongside the indicative tenses so that students canmaster its uses early on, rather than wait to practice it in laterchapters.