SWEDISH LANGUAGE

Locating the subject within the study plan of the BA-programme

Swedish Language 1 is offered at the first year of the BA-programme in Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LIngue, Civiltà e Scienze del Linguaggio) to the students who have chosen Swedish as one of their two main, three-year languages to be studied. This subject is included in the type B of subjects ("characterizing") or in the type C ("completing"), according to whether it is chosen as the first or the second language. Following this model, Swedish 1 is available in each of the three curricula offered in this BA-programme: the Literary-cultural one, the Linguistic-philological one as well as the Political-international one.

Expected results

Swedish language teaching consists of a one-year practical language course (two semesters) kept by the lecturer, and of a theoretical module (one semester) kept by the professor. It aims to develop the students’ skills up to level A2 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Foreign Languages (CEFR); it offers a particular focus, linguistic as well as metalinguistic on phonetic, morphological and syntactic aspects.

Applied knowledge and learning to understand: learning to pronounce (phonetics, phonology, prosody); oral and written understanding with the help of authentic material (songs, radio, television, newspapers) exercise the written production through short compositions; practicing the use of both paper and online dictionaries of Swedish, both monolingual and bilingual.

Independent assessment: learning to report events and circumstances in a simple and effective way; learning to express opinions in a simple and effective way; learning to interact using Swedish in the classroom as much as possible.

Communicative skills: the aim is to reach level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Foreign Languages as for written comprehension and production, oral understanding, production and interaction.

Learning to learn: acquiring autonomy in the learning process through the materials proposed by the teachers as well as through one’s own sources; developing strategies for a correct use of dictionaries. Developing the attitude to self-assessment and reinforcing the acquired abilities in order to progress towards the next step (Swedish Language 2).

Prerequisites

No pre-requirements are requested as the course is addressed to absolute beginners in the Swedish language.

Contents

Swedish Language 1, kept by the Swedish mother-tongue lecturer ("CEL"), starts at the beginning of the academic year and lasts two semesters, whereas the module kept by Sara Culeddu takes place in the second semester only.

Swedish language course:
Phonetics, Phonology and Prosody Aspects; morphological aspects (pronouns, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions); syntactic aspects (phrases construction, negation construction, subordinate clause)

Theoretical module:

Linguistic and meta-linguistic reinforcement of the skills that have been acquired during the language course kept by the mother-tongue lecturer, with a particular focus on the noun, the verb, the adjective and the syntax in Swedish.

References

Swedish language course

Paula Levy Scherrer, Karl Lindemalm, Rivstart. A1 + A2 Textbok, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 2014

Paula Levy Scherrer, Karl Lindemalm, Rivstart. A1 + A2 Övningsbok, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 2014

Norstedts svenska ordbok (dizionario monolingue svedese).

NE:s stora italienska ordbok (dizionario bilingue svedese-italiano/italiano-svedese)

Online dictionaries at Svenska Akademiens Ordböcker https://svenska.se/

Theoretical module:

Uploaded materials on Moodle

Written test (3 hours): grammar; reading comprehension with multiple choice (guided written production); translation from Swedish to Italian.

Oral test: 15 + 15 minutes of oral interaction (presentations, questions and answers) in Swedish about everyday life and activities (one part with the Swedish language teacher and one part with the professor about the subjects dealt with in the module); revision and comments on the written test.

One part is written and two parts are oral; they must be given and passed in the same examination session. To gain access to the oral tests, the written test must have been passed. The two oral parts take place together, one after the other, and usually one or two days after the written test.

The course lasts the whole academic year. All tests, both oral and written, will take place from June 2026.

written and oral

Grading scales

28-30 cum laude: the student masters the topics presented in the course and displays excellent linguistic skills, both written and oral;
26-27: the student has a good knowledge of the topics presented in the course and displays good linguistic skills, both written and oral;
24-25: the student does not fully master the topics presented in the course and displays fair linguistic skills, both written and oral;
22-23: the student has a rather superficial knowledge of the topics presented in the course and displays just satisfactory linguistic skills both written and oral;
18-21: the student has a superficial knowledge of the topics presented in the course and displays just satisfactory linguistic skills both written and oral.

The correspondence with the European grading scales (from A to F) is the following: less than 18 = F; 18-21 = E; 22-25 = D; 26-28 = C; 29-30 = B; 30 cum laude = A.

Didactic methods

Both Swedish language course and the module kept by the professor: frontal and interactive, participatory learning. Both the language course and the module will use Swedish.

More information

If you have questions or need further explanations, please write to massimo.ciaravolo@unive.it. Please book your time with an e-mail if you want to meet the professor. Those who study Swedish without attending the courses (both the Swedish language course with the mother-tongue lecturer and the professor’s module) must come and talk to us at office hours and agree upon a learning plan. Please write to annette.blomqvist@unive.it and to the professor’s address above.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development