The Università del Salento established the School of Italian for Foreigners 10 years ago to promote and diffuse the Italian language and culture throughout the world. The courses offered have an 'anthropological' approach which encourages the full immersion of the foreign student in the Italian social and cultural environment. In addition to the language courses, the School offers a number of extra-curricular activities that expose the students to the Italian way of life.

All our courses of Italian language refer to the European Framework and the guidelines outlined by the European Council related to the foreign language acquisition.

Our mother-tongue language instructors have a sound experience in teaching Italian as foreign language and keep updated with the most advanced teaching methods which assure fast progress in the language acquisition process.

The teaching method used at the School is based on a communicative-functional approach, which allows the students to practice the four essential abilities: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Particular attention is given to the contextualization of the grammar rules which allows the students to express himself/herself correctly from the very beginning of his/her study. Students enrolled at the School are placed in the right class after a placement test.