Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici Florence

Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici lists its main Florence campus at Via Faenza 43. Its Italian language department traces its teaching of Italian as a foreign language back to 1973. For visiting students interested specifically in a group language course, the institute identifies June and July as months of availability in Florence. It also teaches in Tuscania, so the city matters when reading the institute's programme calendar.

How Italian is taught

The department uses an action-oriented approach. Students use Italian to carry out a task, play a role or act out a situation. That gives speaking and listening a purpose alongside reading and writing. The institute describes two teachers working together in its more intensive classes. Individual tutoring gives students another format to consider if they need time to concentrate on a particular language skill.

The Italian Language and Culture department also describes language exchanges and activities that bring students into contact with the local community. Those opportunities are particularly relevant to someone who wants to practise outside the group with people who are not taking the same class. Prospective summer students can use the Florence calendar to check which group corresponds to their existing Italian and whether tutoring or an exchange fits the dates of their stay.