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Italian Language and Culture Course Requirements
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The AP Program unequivocally supports the principle that each individual school must develop its own curriculum for courses labeled "AP." Rather than mandating any one curriculum for AP courses, the AP Course Audit instead provides each AP teacher with a set of expectations that college and secondary school faculty nationwide have established for college-level courses. AP teachers are encouraged to develop or maintain their own curriculum that either includes or exceeds each of these expectations; such courses will be authorized to use the "AP" designation. Credit for the success of AP courses belongs to the individual schools and teachers that create powerful, locally designed AP curricula.
The AP Italian Language and Culture course should be designed by your school to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of a college-level course in Italian, typically taught in the fourth semester, that serves as a transition between language courses and linguistics or content-based courses. Your course should develop students' reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills at this level and within a cultural frame of reference reflective of the richness of the Italian language and culture.
Students enrolling in AP Italian Language and Culture are typically in their fourth or fifith year of language study, or have had equivalent experience with the language.
All students who are willing to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses. The College Board encourages the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP courses for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the AP Program. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.
High schools offering this exam must provide the exam administration resources described in the AP Coordinator's Manual. These include a CD player for the listening part of the exam (part of the multiple-choice section) and recording equipment for the speaking part of the exam (part of the free-response section). Students must be familiar with the operating of the recording equipment prior to the exam administration.
Requirements
To request authorization to label a course "AP," complete the following two steps:
- Complete and submit an AP Course Audit form, on which the teacher and principal attest that their course includes or exceeds the following curricular requirements delineated by college and university faculty.
- Submit an electronic copy of the course syllabus that demonstrates inclusion or improvement on the curricular requirements (see Syllabus Preparation Guidelines). If your course does not include one or more of the curricular requirements but merits designation as a college-level course, see Instructions for Submitting Materials for the process for describing alternate approaches to the course.
 Syllabus Preparation Guidelines
Instructions for Teachers
Instructions on how to submit AP Course Audit materials via the Web will be posted on AP Central and mailed to principals in January 2007.
Curricular Requirements
- The teacher has read the most recent AP Italian Language and Culture Course Description, available as a free download on the AP Italian Language and Culture Course Home Page.
AP Italian Language and Culture Course Home Page
- The course prepares students to demonstrate their level of Italian proficiency across the three communicative modes -- interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational -- and as articulated in Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (Standards). (For Standards descriptions, see the Standards Executive Summary.)
Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (.pdf/40KB)
- In addition to communication, the course also addresses the Standards' other four goals: cultural competence, connections to other school disciplines, comparisons between Italian language and culture and those of the learners, and the use of the language within the broader communities beyond the traditional school environment.
- The teacher uses Italian almost exclusively in class and encourages students to do likewise.
- Instructional materials include a variety of authentic audio and/or video recordings that develop students' listening abilities at the Intermediate High level.
- Instructional materials include a variety of written texts, such as newspapers and magazine articles, literary texts, and other authentic writings, that develop students' Interpretive reading abilities at the Intermediate High level.
- The course provides students with frequent opportunities, in class or in a language laboratory, to practice their Interpersonal and Presentational speaking skills in a variety of settings, types of discourse, topics, and registers.
- The course provides instruction and frequent opportunities to organize and write Interpersonal and Presentational texts in Italian.
- The course frequently integrates Italian cultural topics, including: geography, contemporary life, arts and sciences, social customs and traditions, and contributions of Italians and Italian Americans to the world.
- The course provides students with frequent opportunities to interpret and utilize a variety of formal and informal registers across skills.
- Assessments are frequent, varied, and explicitly linked to the Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational modes. Prior to assigning an assessment task, teachers share with their students the criteria against which their performances will be evaluated.
Resource Requirements
- The school ensures that each student has a copy of the written course materials for individual use inside and outside of class.
- The school provides audio and video equipment and materials that facilitate significant speaking and listening practice for the students throughout the course. This equipment can include cassette/compact disc players or language labs, and video or DVD players or computers.
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