At the Domus Aurea Centre for Italian Language and Culture the teaching method is functional-communicative: based on communication and interaction integrated with the study of grammar.

The teaching units emerge from the integration of the linguistic skills taken in the following order: reading-listening, comprehension, speaking and writing. Vocabulary is a part of the reading-listening and comprehension module, while grammatical analysis is the moment for the student to examine the syntactical structure of the language.

To help our students learn quickly and to enrich their knowledge of Italy, Domus Aurea develops students' skills integrating language with general culture.

Our students come from all over the world; to respect our choice of teaching methods, communication in the classroom takes place mainly in Italian.
 

The teachers, with the help of a progressive vocabulary base, help the beginning students to express themselves correctly starting from the very first lessons.
There are five language levels: Beginners, Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced and Profinciency. Each level is completed in 80 hours of class time.

To guarantee this there is a tutoring service, both for group lessons and individual lessons, to help the students. This allows us to follow each student‘s instruction step by step and, based on the objectives of the course, allows us to check results as the course moves along. Furthermore, where there are specific needs, tutoring guarantees a service usually offered only through individual lessons.

As far as study tools is concerned, we will focus on the following points:
1) Teaching materials: planned and provided by the teachers in structured teaching units. These are integrated with other publications and authentic materials such as newspapers, photographs, advertisements, and so on.
2) Multimedia support material: the basic use of teaching materials like the TV, the video and the computer for multimedia programs contribute to maintaining the students’ interest and motivation.
3) Work outside the class: watching films and reading in Italian guarantees the continuity needed for good results.

At the end of each course the students receive a Diploma containing the teacher’s comments, the number of hours studied, the level and the type of course taken. The students also receive a certificate that indicates their performance in each of the skill areas; this information is used in conjunction with the teacher’s advice to suggest the best way for each student to carry on his language studies, either individually or in another course.