2008-07-09 13:39:45 - Most language courses are offered in the morning and therefore hardly attendable for employees or university students. The Italian language school Il Centro has decided to offer group courses also in the evening hours to enable people with time-constraints during the day to improve their knowledge of Italian.

From the day it began as an Italian language school, Il Centro has always taken into consideration the many foreigners who work or study during the day.
For these people who have less time to dedicate to their Italian studies, Il Centro organizes 10-week evening courses that meet from 6 to 8pm, twice a week (3 times a week for elementary

groups).
Naturally, these evening courses have a different feel to them compared to morning classes. The students often arrive tired after a long day, and they sometimes are forced to miss lessons due to unexpected engagements. We keep the lessons lively, so attention levels won't waver.
The topics covered, whether grammatical structures or expressions tuned to a certain situation, are always finished at the close of the 2-hour lesson. That way, when a hard-working student is forced to skip a lesson, the following lesson will present a different, complete topic.
In addition, students who spend the day in an Italian-speaking environment often have different needs from other students. For example, they may require less practice in the comprehension of spoken Italian, and this allows lessons to move along quickly.
In evening courses at the intermediate and advanced levels we introduce Italian in a form more attuned to the working world, because that is a frequent need of students in these groups. We draw attention to more formal structures, including writing emails, presentations and brief reports.
Evening courses at Il Centro school last 2 ½ months (10 weeks) for a total of 40 hours. As mentioned, only elementary groups meet 3 times a week for a total of 60 hours over a 10-week period; this distinction is necessary because beginners make far greater progress when lessons are more frequent.