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ItalianPod is a language training service designed around your needs, rather than the traditional constraints of language schools and publishers. Technology solves these problems and can make the learning of a new language easier.
We take the best pedagogical approaches of the classroom, layer in the community features of the social web and tailor a customized learning pathway for each student.
Use ItalianPod as a replacement to classroom-study or to make better use of classroom time.
At the core of our service are four main study activities:
Listen
There are many ways to listen to ItalianPod lessons, making learning Italian as flexible and convenient as possible. If you like to study at your computer, you can listen to the lesson via the built-in Flash player on the site. Click the “Play” button, slip on your headphones or turn up your speakers, and learn.
To learn on the go, download the MP3 – either from the download links on the site or via your personalized RSS feed – and listen to it on any MP3-compatible software or device (in iTunes, on your iPod, etc.). You can even burn the MP3 to a CD and listen to it in a regular CD player.
Review
Once you’ve listened to each lesson, you need to review to ensure that the material is firmly cemented in your head. First, download the Lesson PDF, which contains the dialogue, a translation, and both key and supplementary vocabulary, and read along with the podcast. After that, come to ItalianPod.com and take advantage of the myriad of online review tools available. Pour over each line of the dialogue, looking up unfamiliar words and listening to line-by-line audio. Dig deeper into key vocabulary with expansion sentences, which put important words into varied context to get you a better idea of how they are used. Finally, complete the lesson exercises to ensure that you really know what you’ve learned.
Practice
Language is about communication, and once you’ve learned something new you need to practice using it in real communication. Guided and Executive users have individual teachers that provide critical insight into the language and opportunities to practice Italian with a native Italian speaker. In each practice session, you can expand and broaden your Italian in a friendly, stress-free way with a counselor that is familiar with you and your learning goals. Your counselor will help you identify and eliminate problem areas, and let you strengthen your Italian communication skills.
Reinforce
At the end of your learning cycle each day, you should come back and reinforce the material you’ve learned both from today’s lesson and previous lessons. Each period of reinforcement will create a stronger foundation upon which future learning will be built. Use the flashcards and concentration game to make sure that you remember the vocabulary you’ve learned from previous lessons. Review your vocabulary list, identify words you’re not sure about, and look them up in the ItalianPod dictionary. Skim through the Grammar Guide to identify structures with which you’re unfamiliar and find lessons that cover those points. Finally, take the Listening Test occasionally to see the improvement that your hard work has earned you.
