Italian Language and Culture Program
The Italian Language & Culture Program offers the unique opportunity for students to focus exclusively on the Italian language and culture. Participants are enrolled at the Universita’ per Stranieri di Perugia for a semester-long program and study along with university students from all over the world whose main goal is to become fluent in Italian. It’s intensive, it’s international, but most of all it’s widely recognized as the best way to become properly fluent in Italian and to appreciate fully everyday life in Italy!
The program includes approximately 27 hours per week at the Universita’ per Stranieri di Perugia coupled with weekly recitation classes with Umbra instructors. The Umbra instructor’s role is to guide, assist and assess students through their learning experience at the Italian university. They will set weekly assignments, exams, and will determine the student’s final grades in the program.
Students are housed with Italian and/or international students where the lingua franca is Italian. The program allows students to experience Perugia’s university life as a local, and although the program is taught entirely in Italian, it is open to students at all levels of language proficiency, from beginning to advanced.
During Orientation in Perugia, students will take an assessment exam (test d’ingresso), and be placed in one of six levels of language proficiency. Students start a particular level, and depending on their performance, may proceed to the next level or continue at the same level for the duration of the semester. The six levels of instruction are based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, namely:
Level A1 (Beginner) Level A2 (Advanced Beginner)
Level B1 (Intermediate) Level B2 (Advanced Intermediate)
Level C1 (Advanced) Level C2 (Mastery)
The program’s curriculum yields 16 semester credits in the Italian language and culture. At each level of language proficiency the curriculum is fixed and may not be modified. For more information, download the Program Outline, which provides details on the structure of the program, the material covered, and the transcripts awarded for each level completed.
Students are encouraged to take this document to their faculty and/or study abroad advisor to gain permission to attend the program and ensure that proper transfer credit will be awarded. Advisors are encouraged to contact the Institute directly with questions or to learn more about the Direct Enroll program.
This program is ideal for:
- Any student who wishes to gain proficiency rapidly in Italian through an intensive full-immersion experience in Italy;
- Intermediate students who wish to perfect their lingusitic skills and move to the advanced level;
- Advanced students who wish to practice and perfect their skills in a wide variety of courses taught entirely in Italian including subjects such as culture, linguistics and the social sciences;
- Students who wish to complete the equivalent of two years of language study in one semester abroad;
- Italian studies majors at the intermediate level who seek to become fluent enough to be prepared to return to their home institution and enroll in advanced level area-studies courses taught entirely in Italian;
- Students who desire a traditional study abroad experience, studying and living with international students at a foreign university taught in a foreign language;
- Any student seeking a full-immersion Italian language and culture experience learning Italian by living Italian.
Please do not hesitate to contact us at info@umbra.org should you have any questions or inquiries about this unique and special program. In bocca al lupo!
Universita’ per Stranieri di Perugia
The “University for Foreigners” of Perugia represents the oldest and most prestigious Italian institution specialized in the instruction of the Italian language. Founded in 1921 as a school offering culture courses with the aim of transmitting the history, institutions, and natural and artistic beauties of Umbria and Italy, today the Stranieri is an important center for both the teaching of Italian and the development of new educational methodologies for instructors of Italian as a foreign language. It hosts approximately 5000 students from over 100 different nations each term. The Università per Stranieri’s principal location is in the beautiful Gallenga Palazzo located in the heart of the city, opposite the 2000-year-old Etruscan arch of the ancient city and only a short walk from the Umbra Institute. Over time the Università has expanded to include three other buildings, the Palazzi Lupatelli, Prosciutti and Orvieto, which are located in a lovely green zone that borders the city’s historical center and which is within walking distance of Palazzo Gallenga.
The Umbra Institute works closely with the Università per Stranieri di Perugia to create a study abroad program that incorporates this stimulating international environment. Italian Language and Culture Program participants are registered as students at both the Università per Stranieri di Perugia (USP) and the Umbra Institute.
The Calendar Structure
The program essentially inserts the traditional American four-month semester into the Italian academic program as organized by the Università per Stranieri which differs from the American calendar. For this reason, course organization follows two different models, depending on the semester in which students enroll: the fall semester is comprised of a one-month course followed by a three-month course, and the spring semester is a three-month course followed by a one-month course.
4-MONTH FALL SEMESTER
September One-Month Program
October-December Three-Month Program
4-MONTH SPRING SEMESTER
January – March Three-Month Program
April One-Month Program
The one-month program tends to introduce the course material rapidly, while the three-month program moves at a slightly slower pace, repeating usage and facilitating in-depth understanding and proficiency as each new topic is introduced.
Course or Starting Level Selection
There are six starting levels of instruction from which each student may choose. Most students advance one level ahead during the semester while some advance two levels, depending on their performance. The starting levels are organized and structured according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:
Level A1 Course (Beginner) Level A2 Course (Advanced Beginner)
Level B1 Course (Intermediate) Level B2 Course (Adv. Intermediate)
Level C1 Course (Advanced) Level C2 Course (Mastery)
At the lower levels (A1-B1) the curriculum is fixed and may not be modified, whereas courses at the B2 level and above introduce a separate component on Italian culture and society.
Advanced courses, at the levels of C1 and C2, also include courses in a variety of subjects including topics in advanced linguistic studies, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, dialects and historical linguistics, as well as courses on Dante, Italian Renaissance Art, business writing, Italian literature and more. These courses supplement the linguistic program and are used as tools to not only teach the subject matter, but also continue to improve Italian language skills. Each session, advanced students create their own program and may choose up to three elective courses from a variety of offerings in Italian studies in the humanities and social sciences.
Students complete their first course in a given semester at a particular level (e.g., A2) and then, upon examination, move up to the next level in the second course (e.g., B1). In some cases, a student may be required to continue at the same level in the second course if they have not achieved sufficient proficiency to pass to the next level. It is not unusual, for example, for students taking the first course in the fall term to continue at that level for the second course, especially in the higher levels (B2-C2). Since in the spring term students initially participate in a three-month course, they often will have achieved the requisite proficiency to pass to the next level for the final month of the semester.
Weekly Tutorials Sessions with Umbra Professors
For some students the full-immersion experience can be overwhelming, while others, particularly at the beginner level, may find it difficult to follow fully classes taught entirely in Italian. The Umbra Institute provides each student with a weekly tutorial and special office hours for additional assistance when needed. Umbra instructors are experts in the fields of teaching Italian and assessing language acquisition. Their role is to guide, assist and assess the performance of students throughout the learning process.
Students will cover grammatical and conversational topics and prepare for their exams at the Institute. Tutorials are also a relaxed moment of consultation, where students are invited to speak about their experience, ask questions and/or report possible problems. Tutors will provide each week the necessary learning materials and may ask students to organize a weekly update of their Stranieri activities. Students will be given regularly assigned exercises, including short essays, and the students’ midterm and final oral presentations and exams will take place at the Institute. It is the Umbra instructor who is ultimately responsible for assessing the performance of all students and assigning the final grade for all students.
Extensive Contact Hours
The Direct Enroll program is intensive. Each week includes a total of 26-30 contact hours of class time (over 400 hours of instruction during the semester), plus co- and extra-curricular activities offered in Italian. No other semester program offers more!
Extra-curricular Activities
As a student at the Università per Stranieri, program participants have access to all social and sports activities offered by the University. These include: The Chamber Music Group; University Musical Association of Perugia (Agimus); University Social Center (concerts, shows, plays, exhibitions and Italian films are shown; students can participate free of charge in the events and can also exhibit their artistic works); excursions (weekend trips are organized by the university to important Italian cities, as are guided visits to historical and artistic monuments of Perugia and Umbria); and sports (all students have access to the University Sport Centre of Perugia, the CUS, which organizes athletics, baseball, basketball, football, swimming, judo, karate, tennis, cycling, volleyball, lacrosse, etc.)
Transferable Credits with an Umbra Transcript
All Direct Enroll students receive a transcript issued through the Umbra Institute for coursework at the Università per Stranieri di Perugia. These transcripts bridge the gap between the US and EU systems of education and convert the Stranieri program into course equivalents and semester credits based on the American system of higher education. Specifically, the coursework and performance of students at each level of language proficiency are interpreted and re-configured into 4 principal “lines” of study. Each line (or course) is worth 4 credits. Transcripts of the C1 and C2 programs include the elective courses on Italian culture, linguistics, or business economics. These are indicated under “special topics.” See the individual program pages for details about courses and transcripts.
Certificates
At the end of each three-month program students are eligible to take a CELI (Certificato di Lingua Italiana) exam and receive a certificate of proficiency from the Università degli Studi di Perugia. The CELI is recognized internationally and may be useful for those students who hope to work in fields which require knowledge of Italian. The examination dates, however, are set by the Centre for Assessment and Language Certification (CVCL) of the Università and often fall outside the semester schedule for Umbra students. (The exams are generally offered twice a calendar year.)
See More!
To see a short video about Umbra students doing the Direct Enroll program, click here.
To contact former Umbra students who have taken the program, click here.
To apply for this program now simply click here!