6 Great Textbooks to expand your Italian Vocabulary

Have you ever wondered why building an extensive vocabulary is so important and which are the best vocabulary textbooks to improve your Italian vocabulary? Words are one of the most important tools to facilitate and empower communication. Since vocabulary is so important, it is wise to extend the size of your vocabulary whenever you can.

A good vocabulary is also a good indicator of your comprehension ability when reading the new material or listening to Italian. I made the following list based on my experience as an Instructor of Italian as a foreign language, all of the books are quality material that I like to use during my courses and that also serve as self-studying materials.

TEXTBOOKS TO EXPAND YOUR ITALIAN VOCABULARY

Attiva il lessico A1/B2 An easy-to-use book to learn vocabulary in context. The book is made of 20 short units and each one comes with a different topic (traveling, cooking, ordering, etc). The new words are introduced through short texts or dialogues. In addition, you can find a lot of matching or filling the gaps exercises which will help you to memorize the vocabulary presented in the unit. A section is dedicated to idioms collocations (combinations of words).

Attiva il lessico B1/B2. A very useful textbook to expand and improve your Italian vocabulary if you already have a good grasp of the bases of the language. The structure is the same as the one described above. The topics for the (upper)intermediate level range from art, music and health to talking about one’s personality.

Una parola tira l’altra 1 A1/A2. A must-have book to help beginners keep the conversation flowing. The book is made up of 18 chapters and is a great resource to learn everyday Italian conversation topics (talking about the weather, space, describing people and so forth). The book is rich in images and will help you learn new vocabulary and sentences in the most intuitive way.

Una parola tira l’altra 2 A2/B1. This is the most advanced version of the book described above, the structure is the same but the level of the vocabulary taught is higher. Each unit comes with some authentic material such as newspaper articles or book extracts and is completed with a set of exercises for which you can find the keys at the end of the book.

Italiano per modo di dire. A2-C1. This is a book that I love because itteaches Italian collocations (common word combinations and idioms), in other words, a more colloquial Italian. It can serve as a self-teaching book also. The book is divided into 14 chapters, each chapter has a theme and so you learn, for example, animal idioms and expressions or body idioms and expressions. This book is a must if you want to make your Italian more fluent and natural-sounding.

Hai voluto la bicicletta….B2/C1. This is a book about Italian verb expressions, idioms and everything you need to reach a native level of Italian. The book is divided into six sections, each of which focused on different aspects of the language. The new expressions are presented in context (with dialogues or sample sentences) followed by plenty of activities to help you memorize the new patterns.

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11 Italian YouTubers to improve your Italian listening skills

Being an Italian Language Coach and an avid language learner I know that tuning-up your Italian listening skills can be hard, as resources can be scarce.

The good news is that there are thousands of free Italian videos on Youtube that can help you to take your Italian to the next level the smart way.

One of my best tips is to pick up an Italian YouTuber discussing a topic that you are passionate about and follow her channel for a while. Sticking to one Italian youtube channel will be beneficial especially because you will give yourself the time to:

get acquainted with her accent
learn recurring Italian idioms or figures of speech
acquire the vocabulary related to the topic you are passionate about

How can you make the most out of an Italian video?

Listen actively. Of course, it is not when you are listening to something in the background while doing your cleanings on Saturday morning that you will magically internalize new words.
Blend together your interests with Italian language learning: the rule of thumb of smart language learning is to surround yourself with interesting and meaningful Italian learning material. Do you want to learn about vegetarian cooking? Learn in Italian on Youtube!
Use the Italian language purposefully. Use the language to catapult yourself in a different (Italian) world. The ideal situation is combining your hobbies with Italian Language learning. Do you like traveling? Watch Italian videos about traveling. Like this, you don’t study Italian, but you use Italian.

Pros of using Italian Youtube channels as a learning resource

YouTubers use day-to-day language: saving time and squeezing two hobbies on the same slot is not the only advantage of using youtube as a learning resource. YouTubers almost always use a day-to-day Italian vocabulary and idioms that will let you learn the language that Italians speak.
Italian and English subtitles
They are free
They tell a story: most Italian youtubers like to share their lives and stories, like this you learn Italian in a climax. You want to follow the next episode because you know what is going to happen.
They’re great if you are an auditory learner because you tend to memorize and assimilate Italian while listening. If you still don’t know what your learning style is, find it out here.
They are not thetypical students tailored material. You will listen to and learn the real Italian language.

Italian YouTubers

Prossima Fermata Giappone

Italian channel ran a girl who moved to Tokyo and shares stories about how life in Japan is and specifically in Tokyo, from an Italian perspective.

Stefano Mongardi

Italian guy living in LA, California. His channel is mix-mash of life in America, lifestyle and making a living working online. All in Italian.

in Viaggio col Tubo

Beautiful Italian Youtube channel for travel-addicted. These guys vlog about incredible places in Italy and abroad and share a lot of practical traveling hacks in Italian. The Italian video guides come with English subtitles too.

LUMOWELL – Benessere 360

A fantastic Italian Youtube Channel about all things wellness, including work out, nutrition and health.

Marcello Ascani

Are you curious about how an Italian 20-years something YouTuber makes a living out of producing videos? Check out this Channel. Marcello speaks with a very clear Italian accent and always comes with unique insights about life when you work online.

Marco Montemagno

Marco is a digital entrepreneur & broadcaster. I love his channel. He has an opinion on all the new trends in the fields of tech, communications and personal development and matches it all with his great sense of humor.

Casa Surace

mini sit-coms made by a group of Southern Italian flatmates and friends living in the Nord. They joke about the cultural difference between the Southern and Northern way of living. Warning: super fun but with a lot of different accents and Southern slang.

Breaking Italy

an online show on air from Monday to Friday. The host tackles the most discussed breaking news in Italy and the world. I like his way of commenting the news with a critical point of view.

Les ritals

Online mini sit-com about a couple of Italian friends living in Paris with English, French and Italian subtitles.

Briller

Brian is an American young man who has been living in Rome for a while. He speaks Italian very well and clearly. I like his videos because he speaks about Italy and Italians from a foreigner’s point of view, plus he is super fun.

Il Goloso Mangiar Sano

a channel about healthy cooking and plenty of healthy recipes. Good for your diet and your Italian.