Textbook

Crescendo!: An Intermediate Italian Program with Text Audio CD, 2nd Edition

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CRESCENDO! is a comprehensive intermediate Italian program that promotes the development of all four skills, encourages the acquisition of vocabulary, and provides a full review and expansion of Italian grammar-all within a rich cultural framework. Sophisticated, respected and functionally organized, CRESCENDO! emphasizes learning language in context through extensive use of authentic materials, including short stories by well-known modern Italian authors. In each thematically organized chapter, the vocabulary, situations, culturally relevant authentic readings, grammar structures and exercises are all correlated to reinforce the topics and structures featured and to give students the tools they need to express their thoughts and ideas on the themes treated.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Conosciamoci meglio!

Chapter 2. Tanti Racconti del passato

Chapter 3. Tanti sogni nel cassetto!

Chapter 4. Tu vuoi far l'Americano

Chapter 5. Migrazioni: Chi va e chi viene

Chapter 6. E il mondo si fa sempre più piccolo: L'Italia nell'UE.

Chapter 7. Le tradizioni e la cultura popolare

Chapter 8. Mangiare all'Italiana

Chapter 9. L'Italia del passato: Il ventennio fascista e il neorealismo

Chapter 10. L’economia: il «sistema» Italia e le nuove sfide

Chapter 11. La cultura Italiana nel mondo

Chapter 12. Ricapitoliamo

English

Chapter 1. Let’s get to know each other better

Chapter 2. A lot of stories of the past

Chapter 3. A lot of dreams in the drawer

Chapter 4. You want to be an American

Chapter 5. Migration: Who comes and who goes

Chapter 6. And the world keeps getting smaller: Italy in the European Union

Chapter 7. Traditions and popular culture

Chapter 8. Eating Italian

Chapter 9. Italy of the past: The fascist period and neo-realism

Chapter 10. The economy: the Italian system and the new challenges

Chapter 11. Italian culture in the world

Chapter 12. Let’s recap

Hallmark Features

Facciamo conversazione emphasizes chapter-focused vocabulary for review and acquisition, and corresponding short cultural readings with related activities.
Strutture provides a review of and expansion upon functionally related grammatical structures, with related practice.
Ascoltiamo emphasizes the development and practice of listening skills in a chapter-related context
Testi e contesti: devoted to the reading of a longer authentic text by a famous Italian author, with pre-reading tasks and activities, as well as post-reading comprehension and discussion questions.
Per scrivere focuses on the presentation and practice of a specific writing strategy which prepares the student for an actual writing assignment.