"Elementary Italian" teaches Italian vocabulary, grammar, and culture in units centering on practical, engaging themes. The progression of the material is tried and tested, and begins with an introductory lesson on the alphabet and pronunciation, greetings and salutations, numbers, days of the week, and months of the year.
Topics such as the family, the city, leisure activities, health, and the home present useful, everyday vocabulary and language in familiar contexts, making it easy for students to relate to the target language and practice applying it.
As students advance through the text they learn several verb tenses: the simple present, the imperative, the present perfect, gerunds, and the present progressive. Other grammatical structures include pronouns, comparatives and superlatives, and prepositions.
In addition to the language, the text also teaches students about aspects of Italian culture including Italian cuisine, the school system, fashion, and politics and government. Each section on culture includes authentic materials, providing students with exposure to the Italian language as it is used by native speakers.
Student friendly and extensively class-tested, "Elementary Italian" was written for college-level beginning Italian courses, and is designed for classes that meet three days a week over a fifteen week semester, but can easily be adapted to a quarter system.
Jessica Greenfield earned bachelor's degrees in Italian studies and Classical Civilizations at the University of California, Berkeley, her master's degree in Italian Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and her Ph.D. in Romance Languages, with a specialization in Italian, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Greenfield is a faculty member in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of North Texas, where she also serves as the Italian Language Program Coordinator. The author of numerous articles, reviews, and textbook contributions, she has also presented at regional and national conferences. Her research interests include modern Italian literature, Sicilian writers, and the Italian realist writer Giovanni Verga.