The first edition of Percorsi quickly became one of the best-selling elementary Italian texts. The new second edition features a new design, more focus on skills-development, updated cultural information Percorsi is an introductory program that promotes the acquisition of Italian language and culture through the integration of the “5 Cs” principles of the National Standards for Foreign Language Education. Percorsi is designed to provide beginning learners with a variety of tools to develop their communicative competence in the four major language skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—as they acquire familiarity with Italian culture. All of the features in Percorsi have been carefully thought out to support the two key aspects of the language acquisition process: language comprehension and language production. From the start, carefully structured communicative activities based on authentic materials and texts encourage students to use Italian in everyday situations. Generous use of authentic content also offers students a chance to develop reading skills while gaining cultural awareness and understanding of Italian communities and traditions throughout the world. In addition, each chapter explicitly promotes cultural exploration through illustrated presentations that are followed by activities facilitating comprehension and highlighting cultural comparisons . Students are encouraged to analyze and compare extremely varied aspects of Italian culture while making connections to their own experiences. Note: this is the standalone book, if you want the Book/Access Code order the ISBN below: 0205189393 / 9780205189397 Percorsi: L'Italia attraverso la lingua e la cultura with MyItalianLab and Pearson eText * Package consists of: 0205032915 / 9780205032914 MyItalianLab with Pearson eText -- Access Card -- for Percorsi: L'Italia attraverso la lingua e la cultura (24-month access) 0205784720 / 9780205784721 Percorsi: L'Italia attraverso la lingua e la cultura Francesca Italiano is the Director of the Italian Language Program at the University of Southern California. She has a Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles in Nineteenth Century Italian Literature and an M.S. from USC in Applied Linguistics. She is the coauthor of the literary reader Incontri Attuali and the author of the second edition of the intermediate program, Crescendo ! She is currently working with the USC Language Center in the development of the VIE (Virtual Italian Experience) video game, which is based on Percorsi . The VIE project is being funded by a two-year NEH grant. Irene Marchegiani is currently Coordinator of Student Teaching for European Languages at Stony Brook University, where she teaches second language acquisition methodology courses as well as courses in European Studies. Professor Marchegiani has taught Italian language, literature, and culture at all levels and has authored articles on contemporary Italian poetry, with a particular emphasis on women writers. She has conducted research and published articles on Italian epic poems and translated Torquato Tasso’s Aminta , which was awarded the prestigious “Diego Valeri” Monselice prize in 2002. With Francesca Italiano, she published the literary reader Incontri Attuali and the intermediate Italian program, Crescendo . Comes ready to go in brand new binder