Workshop on Intercomprehension among Romance languages

What is intercomprehension among Romance languages? It is the ability to partially understand a language because it is similar in vocabulary and grammar to another language you already know. For example, Italian speakers can partially understand Spanish, even if they have never studied it, and viceversa. By exploiting these similarities, people who speak different languages can also communicate using their own language or a Romance language they know well.  

The course aims to harness this natural phenomenon through a targeted teaching methodology that allows participants to progressively understand texts written in the main Romance languages and to interact using their entire personal linguistic repertoire, including dialect. The learning outcomes are to develop plurilingual skills that can be used in a variety of contexts, both personal and professional. 

The workshop sessions will be held mainly in Italian and Spanish, alternating with other Romance languages.  

Target audience and prerequisites: the workshop is aimed at anyone who wants to approach different Romance languages in a single course. The entire community of the University of Bologna, including students, technical staff and lecturers, can participate free of charge. The workshop does not require any particular proficiency in the Romance languages covered, such as language level certification. The only prerequisite is the  knowledge of at least a couple of Romance languages such as Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian or Spanish, or alternatively, knowledge of one of these Romance languages combined with a basic knowledge of Latin.  

It should be noted that the intercomprehension workshop is not a language course like those normally offered by the University Language Centre.  

Maximum number of participants: 19.  

Total hours: 30 (11 two-hour face-to-face sessions + 8 hours of guided activities).  

Location: face-to-face workshop sessions in room 6 at the CLA headquarters in Piazza San Giovanni in Monte, 4.  

Calendar: face-to-face sessions will be held on Fridays from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., from 6th March to 5th June 2026. There will be no session on Friday 24 April.  

Workshop content: introduction to intercomprehension among Romance languages, development of strategies for reading short texts in a foreign language, development of strategies for improving written and oral comprehension in the main Romance languages and interproduction. After an initial focus on receptive written comprehension skills, the workshop will offer opportunities for listening and oral production activities.  

For further information please write to: cla.intercomprensione@unibo.it. 

For pre-registration, fill-in the FORM. 

If the number of applications exceeds the number of places available, participants will be selected on the basis of their language profile. Where possible, the selection process will seek to maintain a balance between students, teachers and administrative staff.