Co.d’I.Ci - Corso d’italiano per la cittadinanza (CODES - Italian language course for citizenship)

From 2012 to date (2021) as the work is still ongoing for level B2

Lecturers
Students

Law
Medicine & Nursing
Sustainability
Tourism

Autonomous learning
Classroom Context

Italian

Italian

B1

Guiding resources (online course/book)

Vocabulary
Grammar
Pragmatics

Listening
Writing
Reading

Co.d’I.Ci (Corso d'italiano per la cittadinanza) is an online course designed for young adult immigrants in Italy, including some who may attend Italian language courses at university language centres.
The didactic materials proposed in the Co.d'I.Ci web-course are produced by the students of the 2nd level Master in Teaching Italian L2 at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" (from 2012 to date).
The course is designed to help learn the Italian language and to gain information about the rights and duties of a citizen living in Italy. It presents many activities, with audio and video texts and a lot of information about the world of work, the Italian state system, social and health services and the social and cultural heritage of the country. The learning modules offered range from the pre-A1 level to to the intermediate B1 level (the B2 level is still in under construction).
The B1 level consists of eleven units and each unit has five sections: 1) getting started; 2) reading and listening; 3) using the language; 4) grammar; 5) writing and speaking. This division into sections is not always respected in the exercises proposed.
Though they are not created specifically for LSP contexts, selected resources (units) can be effectively used in a language course for specific purposes (i.e. law, medicine, sustainability, tourism).

These multimedia study resources were submitted to 14 university students in the University of Bologna, divided into work-groups made of 3-5 members selected on the basis of their disciplinary macro-areas (humanities, law, socio-political studies, medicine) and to 35 Spanish speaking students studying Italian in the University of Valencia, they too divided into groups of 4-5 students. All groups worked autonomously on their threefold assignment: 1) answering an individual questionnaire regarding the use of the indicated tools and materials, 2) participating in group discussions of the individual evaluations and 3) producing a collective report with a detailed evaluation of the study resources that were analyzed. An assessment grid containing the main descriptive categories was used to guide the students in their individual analysis and all six learning units were analyzed. Results showed that students deemed the technical functionalities of the platform and of the single types of exercise to be good even if they warranted some improvement, e.g., the automatic correction system was considered very useful and important for the interactivity of the materials, but quite basic in its settings due to the lack of more in-depth self-correction suggestions. Similar comments regarded the graphic appearance of the site (which was defined as "somewhat robotic in design") and its reduced user-friendliness with mobile phones. Results showed a generally high appreciation for linguistic study integrated into the contents and the variety of exercises offered, as well as for activities related to current affairs based on audio/video tools. On the other hand, the least popular activities were those based in purely grammatical study or the more repetitive, exercise drills. Given the lack of activities related to phonetics and creative use of spoken and written language, as well as the presence in some cases of technical terminology that would require opportunities for discussion and explanation with classmates, students considered the materials more appropriate for a classroom setting or for blended-learning activities rather than for learning in total autonomy.

This resource is designed for blended-learning. According to the user’s own needs, he/she may explore all the activities and complete the exercises without limitations, thus creating her/his own learning path. The materials are useful for self-directed learning, but they must also be linked to classroom work both for a deeper observation of certain linguistic aspects and for the necessary activities of oral and written production and interaction.

The selected units for an LSP course could be:
Unit 2 Raccolta differenziata (SUSTAINABILITY)
Unit 4 Il voto elettorale (LAW)
Unit 5 Diritti umani (LAW)
Unit 6 La salute (MEDICINE & NURSING)
Unit 9 Rispetto della legge (LAW)
Unit 11 Bellezze naturali e culturali (TOURISM)