This is an Italian conversation lesson designed for beginning learners of any age. In this lesson, students will be introduced to Italian job words, and conduct short interviews in pairs.
Lesson Objective
The goal of this lesson is to practice requesting and giving personal information with an information gap exercise. Students will ask and answer questions with a partner, then report what they have learned to another partner. Vocabulary relating to jobs will be introduced, and students will have an opportunity to practice numbers, countries, and question words. First, second, and third person singular verbs will also be practiced.
Preparation
For each student, make a small card with someone’s personal information on it. For example:
Paolo
27
Meccanico
Brasile
Introduce Job Vocabulary
Write the following Italian words on the board, without the English translations. Invite students to guess what they are, and write the English translations:
l’ingegnere= engineer
il dottore/la dottoressa= doctor
il meccanico= mechanic
l’elettricista= electrician
la segretaria= secretary
il cuoco= cook
il poliziotto= policeman
il cameriere/la cameriera= waiter/waitress
la/lo studente= student
l’insegnante= teacher
The Interview
After they have the job vocabulary, ask for questions that your students can ask people in Italian. Write the questions the students give on the board, but make sure you have the following questions up there:
Come ti chiami/Come si chiama?= “What’s your name?” (informal/formal or 3rd person)
_Di dove sei/Di dov’_è?= “Where are you from?” (informal/formal or 3rd person)
Quanti anni hai/Quanti anni ha?= “How old are you?” (informal/formal or 3rd person)
Quale lavoro fai/Quale lavoro fa?= “What’s your job?” (informal/formal or 3rd person)
Ask a few students the questions to make sure they know how to answer. The answer for Quale lavoro fai? can be either Io faccio il/la… or Sono…
Give each student a card with personal information on it. Instruct them to interview each other in pairs and take notes of their partners’ answers. They should not show each other their cards.
After the students have interviewed each other, have them switch partners and tell their new partners about the person they interviewed. The conversations should go more or less like this:
Interview
Q: Come ti chiami?
A: Io chiamo Paolo.
Q: Quanti anni hai?
A: Ho 27 (ventisette) anni.
Q: Quale lavoro fai?
A: Faccio il meccanico/ Sono meccanico.
Q: Di dove sei?
A: Io sono di Brasile.
Report on Interview
Q: Come si chiama?
A: Si chiama Paolo.
Q: Quanti anni ha?
A: Ha 27 anni.
Q: Quale lavoro fa?
A: Fa il meccanico/ È meccanico.
Q: Di dov’è?
A: È di Brasile
These interviews can be continued into a writing exercise for extra practice. Students can write about themselves and/or the person they interviewed.
