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Italian

A-Level Italian in England is a Pearson Edexcel qualification, specification 9IN0, first taught from September 2017, first assessed in 2019, Ofqual qualification number 603/1050/9. Its shape matters, because it is not the AQA shape that most English A-Level language teaching folklore assumes. There are three components. Paper 1, Listening, reading and translation, runs for two hours, carries 80 marks and is worth 40 per cent of the qualification: Section A is listening for 30 marks, Section B is reading for 30 marks, and Section C is a single unseen translation from Italian into English for 20 marks. Paper 2, Written response to works and translation, runs for two hours and forty minutes, carries 120 marks and is worth 30 per cent: Section A is a translation from English into Italian for 20 marks, and Sections B and C are two essays on the two prescribed works studied, each essay marked out of 50. Paper 3, Speaking, is externally set and conducted by a teacher-examiner in an April or May window, carries 72 marks and is worth 30 per cent: Task 1 is a stimulus-card discussion on one sub-theme for 30 marks, and Task 2 is a presentation and discussion of the student's own independent research project for 42 marks. The two translation directions therefore sit in different papers, and the largest single paper is Paper 1 rather than the essay paper. The content is four themes, each with three bold sub-themes, and the spec prints every one of them in Italian. Tema 1, I cambiamenti della società italiana, covers l'evoluzione della famiglia italiana, l'istruzione and il mondo del lavoro. Tema 2, La cultura politica ed artistica nei Paesi di lingua italiana, covers la musica, i media and il patrimonio culturale. Tema 3, L'Italia: una società in evoluzione, covers l'impatto positivo dell'immigrazione, i problemi della migrazione and il divario Nord/Sud. Tema 4, Dal fascismo ai giorni nostri, covers l'ascesa di Mussolini al potere, il Fascismo durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale and dalla dittatura alla democrazia. A scope rule runs underneath them and is easy to miss: Themes 1, 3 and 4 are set in the context of Italy only, while Theme 2 alone broadens to any Italian-speaking country, countries, community or communities. Alongside the themes sit a prescribed grammar list, the two declared works taken from the board's published list of eight literary texts and six films, and an independent research project on a self-chosen question relating to Italian-speaking culture or society, recorded on Form RP3 and defended orally. Assessment objectives are weighted 20 per cent AO1, 30 per cent AO2, 30 per cent AO3 and 20 per cent AO4, and no dictionary is permitted in any part of the qualification.

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Continue reading — Chapter I Table of contents

Pearson Edexcel 9IN0 Tema 1 - I cambiamenti della società italiana: l'evoluzione della famiglia italianaDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languagesPearson Edexcel 9IN0 Tema 1 - l'evoluzione della famiglia italiana: i mammoniPearson Edexcel 9IN0 Tema 1 - l'istruzione: il sistema scolasticoPearson Edexcel 9IN0 Tema 1 - l'istruzione: i problemi degli studenti; la fuga dei cervelliPearson Edexcel 9IN0 Paper 1 Section B - reading, 30 marks, questions set and answered in Italian+97 moreStandardAdvanced

Table of contents · 13 ChaptersT·13

Ch. IFamily and education: l'evoluzione della famiglia italiana e l'istruzione5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IIWork and the two Italies: il mondo del lavoro e il divario Nord/Sud5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IIIMusic and heritage: la musica e il patrimonio culturale5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IVI media: freedom of expression, the press and the politics of attention5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VMigration: l'impatto positivo dell'immigrazione e i problemi della migrazione5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIDal fascismo ai giorni nostri: dictatorship, war and the making of the Republic5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIIGrammar and translation: the prescribed system and the two directions5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIIIListening: understanding spoken Italian under exam conditions5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IXReading: authentic Italian texts and how they are questioned5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XSpeaking: Task 1, the stimulus card and the three grids5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIThe literary text: studying a work and writing the 50-mark essay5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIIThe film: studying a work of cinema and writing about it in Italian5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIIIThe independent research project: Task 2 and Form RP35 texts · 0 read

Instrument · 01Recommended study order

Instrument · 02Exam structure

Paper 1 - Listening, reading and translation (9IN0/01): Written examination of 2 hours, 80 marks, 40 per cent of the A-Level - the single largest component. Three sections, all compulsory, and every question is set in Italian and must be answered in Italian except the translation. Section A, listening, 30 marks with a recommended 50 minutes: four questions, multiple-choice and open-response, including questions that test summary skills, on a recording featuring male and female Italian speakers across different registers and text types, with material drawn from online media. Students have individual control of the recording and may stop, revisit and replay it as they wish. Section B, reading, 30 marks with a recommended 50 minutes: five questions on texts that are authentic or adapted from authentic sources and that mix factual and abstract content - contemporary, historical, literary, fiction and non-fiction, written for different purposes and audiences. Again multiple-choice and open-response, set and answered in Italian. Section C, translation into English, 20 marks with a recommended 20 minutes: one unseen Italian text rendered into English. The paper draws on vocabulary and structures from all four themes. No dictionary. The AO split is 15 per cent AO1 and 25 per cent AO2, so Paper 1 alone carries three quarters of the comprehension marks in the whole qualification.
Paper 2 - Written response to works and translation (9IN0/02): Written examination of 2 hours 40 minutes, 120 marks, 30 per cent of the A-Level. Section A, translation into Italian, 20 marks with a recommended 30 minutes: one unseen English passage rendered into Italian, its content taken from one of the four themes, marked by a points-based scheme in which one mark is awarded for each correct individual section of language. Sections B and C, written response to works, 100 marks across 2 hours 10 minutes: two essays, either two on literary texts (Section B) or one on a literary text and one on a film (Section C), on the two works the student has declared, chosen from the board's prescribed list. There is a choice of two questions on each work. Each essay is marked out of 50 by three separate levels-based grids applied to it individually: critical and analytical response (AO4) out of 20, range of grammatical structures and vocabulary (AO3) out of 20, and accuracy of language (AO3) out of 10. Pearson recommends approximately 300 to 350 words per essay, but the whole essay is marked regardless of length. All questions are set in Italian and must be answered in Italian. No credit is given for an essay on a literary text that argues from a film adaptation of it. No dictionaries, and no documentation relating to the works may be taken into the examination.
Paper 3 - Speaking (9IN0/03): Externally set, conducted by a teacher-examiner in the centre during a prescribed five-week window in April and May, recorded in full and marked by Pearson. 72 marks, 30 per cent of the A-Level. Total time 21 to 23 minutes: 5 minutes of supervised preparation plus 16 to 18 minutes of speaking. Task 1, discussion on a theme, 30 marks, 6 to 7 minutes. An invigilator - not the teacher-examiner - offers the student a choice in English between two sub-themes taken from two of the four themes, following a sequencing grid supplied by Pearson; there are twelve stimulus cards in all, one per sub-theme. The chosen card carries two statements, A and B, offering different views. The student picks one during the 5 minutes of preparation, may make notes on one side of A4, and announces the choice before the discussion begins. Part 1 is the two compulsory printed questions plus follow-up on the statement; Part 2 broadens to the wider theme. The three grids are knowledge and understanding of society and culture (AO4) out of 12, accuracy and range of language (AO3) out of 12, and interaction (AO1) out of 6. Task 2, the independent research project, 42 marks, 10 to 11 minutes. Part 1 is a presentation of no more than two minutes summarising at least two of the written sources used, outlining their main points and giving a personal response, marked out of 12 for response to written language (AO2). Part 2 is the discussion of the research as a whole, marked by the same three grids as Task 1: AO4 12, AO3 12, AO1 6. In both tasks the student is expected to take the lead and to ask questions that elicit opinions and check understanding.
Works, the research project, assessment objectives and the rules that catch people out: The two works are studied for Paper 2 and must be declared: either two literary texts, or one literary text and one film, taken from the list in Appendix 2 of the specification. That list contains eight literary texts - Il giorno della civetta (Leonardo Sciascia, 1961), Io non ho paura (Niccolò Ammaniti, 2001), Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo (Enrico Brizzi, 1994), Lessico famigliare (Natalia Ginzburg, 1963), Marcovaldo (Italo Calvino, 1963), Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (Luigi Pirandello, 1921), Senza sangue (Alessandro Baricco, 2002) and Volevo i pantaloni (Lara Cardella, 1989) - and six feature-length films: I cento passi (Marco Tullio Giordana, 2000), Il Postino (Michael Radford, 1994), La grande bellezza (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013), La vita è bella (Roberto Benigni, 1997), Nuovo cinema paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988) and Va' dove ti porta il cuore (Cristina Comencini, 1996). Prescribed lists are set by the board and can be revised between issues of the specification, and centres choose from within them, so every candidate must confirm the list current for their own examination series. The independent research project is the student's own question or statement, developed individually, investigated from a range of authentic sources including at least two written sources in Italian, with 6 to 10 key findings and the source list recorded on Form RP3, signed by student and teacher and submitted no later than three weeks before the assessment. Its subject must relate to Italian-speaking culture or society and must not be one of the works studied for Paper 2 - a project that focuses on a Paper 2 work scores zero for Task 2 - although it may legitimately explore the author or film-maker more widely, for example the life of the novelist rather than the novel. Assessment objectives across the qualification: AO1, understanding and responding in speech to spoken language and in writing to spoken language, 20 per cent; AO2, understanding and responding in speech and writing to written language, 30 per cent; AO3, manipulating the language accurately using a range of lexis and structure, 30 per cent; AO4, knowledge, understanding and critical response to the culture and society of Italian-speaking countries and communities, 20 per cent. The qualification is linear: everything is sat at the end of the course, in one series, and no dictionary is permitted anywhere, including in the speaking preparation.

Instrument · 03Official sources