Language Courses

ISTITUTO EUROPEO offers individual lessons for Italian teachers who want to prepare for the D.I.T.A.L.S. exams (Didattica dell'Italiano come Lingua Straniera).

The DITALS Certificate issued by the University of Siena for Foreigners uses written and oral tests to evaluate theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of the teaching of Italian to foreigners and guarantees a certain degree of standardisation in lieu of a longer training process at university institutions specialised in the training of teachers of Italian as a foreign language.

Applicants
The exam for the DITALS Certificate can be taken by Italian citizens and foreigners who fulfil the following requisites:
- excellent knowledge of the Italian language;
- secondary school diploma;
- university degree in the area of humanities or, in the absence of such, certification that the candidate has taught a minimum of 150 hours of Italian to foreigners;
- certificate of attendance in a language-teaching training course consisting of at least 30 hours of lessons.

Exams and evaluations
The exam consists of sections on theory and practice. The sections on theory are designed to test skills in the areas of linguistics, socio-linguistics and language instruction. The sections on practice test the abilities to analyse and integrate teaching material, to develop teaching material, to create lesson units, and to create tests in comprehension, production and evaluation. The exam is composed of four sections and requires five hours for the written exam (sections A, B and C) and approximately 10 minutes for the oral part (section D):
Section A: Analysis of didactic materials
Section B: Construction of didactic materials
Section C: Knowledge of theory (20 questions)
Section D: Oral language teaching ability (an audio recording of the candidate, who is asked to confront orally tasks in communication connected to the role of a teacher of Italian to foreigners).
To be awarded the DITALS Certificate, it is necessary to obtain the minimum score in each section. Within one year of the first DITALS exam, candidates may attempt in subsequent sittings to pass those sections in which the minimum score was not reached. The evaluation of the tests is carried out by the DITALS Scientific Commission of the University of Siena for Foreigners, whose decision is final and not subject to question.

Sites and dates of the exams. The DITALS exam takes place at the University of Siena for Foreigners in July and December, as well as at other accredited institutions within and outside of Italy. These latter institutions may also request the University of Siena for Foreigners to organise a special preparatory course.
A fee is charged to take the exam.

Other exam dates for the DITALS may be requested by accredited institutions.

For further information, please contact:

in Italy:


www.unistrasi.it

abroad:

Istituti Italiani di Cultura (Italian Institutes of Culture)