4skills4Italian
Listening Speaking Reading Writing
Some tips to improve your Italian 🇮🇹
 

LISTENING / Italian TV programmes 
Lo sai che puoi vedere alcuni programmi della TV Italiana anche se vivi all’estero? 
Watching tv it’s very important for who are learning a language. While you’re improving your listening skill you can learn more about Italy. On RaiPlay website, once you create an account for free, you can watch some TV shows even if you are abroad. Programmes called Linea Bianca, Verde, Blu, are very interesting for who want to watch videos about Italy, place to visit, food, traditions.
⛄️ LINEA BIANCA ( Bianca come la neve).
Per chi ama sciare e vuole scoprire di più sulle montagne italiane.
🐬LINEA BLU (Blu come il mare).
Per chi vuole conoscere meglio i mari italiani, le isole e le coste.
🌳LINEA VERDE (Verde come la natura).
Per chi è interessato all’agricoltura, al cibo e i prodotti tradizionali.

READING 
Leggere è molto importante.  Vi consiglio due libri che molti studenti di Italiano hanno amato.  

Una storia semplice di Leonardo Sciascia. (Level of Italian: from mid-intermediate). It is a great crime novel with a unique sense of humour, written by one of the best Italian authors. Set in Sicily, the story is based on a real fact (the notorious theft of a Caravaggio masterpiece). For who wants to read something from the Italian Literature but short and enjoyable. Only 66 pages, a small price for a high-quality reading  🙂
Il vocabolario è un po’ difficile ma vale la pena.

Il ladro di scarpe di Enrico Lovato, Almaedizioni. (Level of Italian: Elementary). It’s an easy reading book for students of Italian. The story is enjoyable and easy to read. Facile da leggere. On the website almaedizioni.it are also available the audio tracks so, you can read and listen at the same time, which is very effective!
Il vocabolario è utile e contemporaneo. 

SPEAKING / Pronunciation  
Come si pronuncia la R in Italiano?
How to roll R in Italian? Do you know, even Italian can have a problem to pronounce it? It called “erre moscia”. Quando qualcuno non può pronunciare la erre si dice per esempio: “Emanuele ha la “erre moscia”. There are many exercises to improve your “Rolling R”. Here below two little tips.

The position of your tongue is essential. Normally, you make the sound R in English with your tongue back in your palate. To roll the R in Italian you need to place your tongue over the ridge behind your upper teeth (the alveolar ridge). (In English we use this tongue position to pronounce tt in words like better or butter).

Keep this position and try to pronounce the syllable TLA – TLA – TLA very quickly until your tongue starts to vibrate and produce the R sound. I selected for you 4 videos from youtube to get some demonstration. Have fun and let me know. Fatemi sapere.  

WRITING
Writing is an excellent practice that allows you to improve even your speaking. Writing is very related to speaking; both require you to think for yourself and use the vocabulary you know to shape your own sentences. When you are writing, you have more time to think about your words, and you can even look up the right way to say things and words you don’t know.
It’s a good habit to have a notebook where you can write a useful phrase every day. Even more effective is to have a diary where you can write your day or a little thought.
Avere un diario dove scrivere ogni giorno delle piccole frasi, pensieri o una storia ti aiuterà a migliorare giorno dopo giorno.

Spelling as well can be difficult. If you are too busy to write a diary you can have fun playing with some games in order to improve the spelling. I selected some Apps inspired from “vintage games” to play with:
Impiccato (the hangman, do you remember? 😃
Cruciverba (crossword)
Non trovo la parola – puzzle.
Scarabeo – scrabble ( you can choose Italian from the app)
Nomi, cose e città (boy, girl, thing, animal).

You can easily find these apps or similar for free in App Store or Google Play.