Description
‘Italian Workout!’ is a five-level series of self-study workbooks for learners of Italian. The B2 ‘Italian Workout!’ is aimed at upper-intermediate level students and contains grammar explanations, vocabulary lists, practice exercises and even audio recordings!
“Very helpful book. I have an upcoming course in Italy and I hope this will help prepare me. I like the practice exercises. LOTS of helpful new vocabulary!! Vocabulary is what really helps me since I like to read whatever I can find in Italian.” – Linda, September 2016
- B2 / Upper-intermediate-level Italian language course
- 103 page e-book, .pdf format
- Grammar explanations, vocabulary lists and practice exercises
- 38 exercises + 10 audio tracks
- Try before you buy: Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
How do I access my ebook?
When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?
Jan De Booser (verified owner) –
Highly recommended!
Rosemarie Elizabeth Harvey (verified owner) –
I have the B2 and C1 as I thought I might need to review before going straight to C2. I was right and am thoroughly enjoying going over things I thought I had covered!!!
The exercises are clear and helpful. I have not had the books for very long, but I know that I am improving.
I actually stopped doing Grammar exercises after reading a lot of advice from Daniel re the importance of listening and reading, however I do enjoy this kind of work, so they are back in my life!!
I certainly agree that listening and reading are really important, I have progressed a lot while listening to the News 3 times when I can..it is fabulous. am also reading as much as I can and loving that I can feel myself progressing. Good value.
many thanks Daniel and Team.
Phil Haigh (verified owner) –
Clear, easy to follow and well thought out. It’s a helpful book to practise and consolidate your skills.
Evelyn (verified owner) –
This was very useful for practice. It includes good concise explanations of the grammatical points and useful every day vocabulary. The exercises with audio files are particularly useful.
Lyn O’Neill (verified owner) –
A great kick start for 2020! I love the way this book is set out, its ‘lightness’ and the way things are explained in layman’s terms as well as how it picks up on the details of grammar that I have previously just glossed over in an effort to speak (ungrammatically). I do think I need to work slowly and methodically and probably order the B1 workbook as well.
Judy (verified owner) –
Having bought the C1/2 workbook, last summer I tried a few more of the exercises on the online Italian Club website and realised I needed to revise and consolidate at intermediate level first. Indeed on this basis I may be working backwards to B1 in the effort to apply what I thought I knew and had ‘got’! I suppose it’s an example of the importance of fairly frequent review to ensure what you’ve studied stays accessible. What I like about the series is that all the appropriate grammar is gathered in one place, straightforwardly explained and with enough, but not too many exercises, so that it is not offputting. It should help me to revise fairly easily provided I can make the time to do something less interesting than listening to Easy Italian News!
Karen (verified owner) –
Sorry, but the excersizes are difficult, and I didn’t feel like I was learning much by doing them. The most disappointing thing is that it is not interactive, meaning you don’t input the answers online. You have to write down your answers on a paper, and then check the answer key. I didn’t think it would be like this when I made the purchase. I will instead do an online course, in which you can type in your answers online. Very disappointing purchase.
easyreadersorg –
Ciao Karen,
Thanks for taking the time to leave a review and I’m very sorry your were disappointed.
Were you aware that Italian Workout B2 is the fourth hardest in a series of five ebooks of this type?
I’m sorry if the exercises were too difficult for you. Perhaps you should have chosen an easier level?
To help people decide if an ebook is suitable for them, we link to a free sample and ALWAYS ADVISE THAT PEOPLE LOOK AT IT BEFORE BUYING.
The free sample for the ebook you reviewed is 29 pages long (the first quarter of the ebook) and has 12 ‘difficult’, ‘non-interactive’ exercises. In the product description, we suggest you “Try before you buy”. I assume you didn’t see this.
Once again, I’m sorry you weren’t satisfied. If you had contacted me to tell me, I might have been able to exchange the ebook with one that was more suitable for your level, or suggest other alternatives…
Best wishes,
Daniel
Karin (verified owner) –
This series of books is great. They are full of information, but still short. You can print them out into a booklet form if you don’t want to study in front of a screen. You learn grammar at the appropriate level. There are exercises to practice what you have studied, but my favorite thing is the vocabulary. The lists are fantastic. You can never know enough words in another language!
Ann Dobson (verified owner) –
An excellent resource that has really helped me with my Italian grammar. I love these helpful resources from Online Italian. They are first class. Thank you.
Christopher –
I’ll start off by saying that this is the fifth or sixth book that I have bought from the OnLineItalian club – the rest are easy readers or parallel text which I found excellent. This is the first grammar book though and while I am only about a third of the way through it I am finding that the explanations seem good, but when I get to the exercises I don’t finf that the lessons have adequately prepared me for them – hence the medium score rating overall.
Vida Motaln (verified owner) –
With workout series you practice and learn grammar and vocabulary on different levels and following them improve your language skills. Listening exercises improve listening skills. And if you also use the site, you have a great learning experience. Thank you guys for all the work you put in the books and the site.
Anne Quieti –
Whilst I bought this level, B2, at the same time as A2 and B1 I have not started to seriously study it (I am still on A2). I can’t wait. I have skimmed through it and know that it will certainly improve and strengthen my knowledge and ability to speak Italian. Use of certain verb tenses is always an area of uncertainty and these books definitely help. The speech on the listening files has really picked up speed compared with the A2 and B1 levels. This can only be a good thing if your intention to learn and converse with Italian people is serious.
Linda Ann Novelli Thompson –
Very helpful book. I have an upcoming course in Italy (with Madrelingua School) and I hope this will help prepare me. I like the practice exercises. LOTS of helpful new vocabulary!! Vocabulary is what really helps me since I like to read whatever I can find in Italian.
Ewa –
The grammar are explained in an easy way, I love this and it is helping me along with my italian.
John Thomson –
Any system which purports to teach a foreign language must teach
1 Grammar
2 Vocabulary
3 Two way communication via the spoken and written word
4 Conversation with native speakers – possibly the most difficult skill to learn
Grammar is to learning Italian as a good soffritto is to cooking Italian.
I am writing this review on the B2 workbook from my B1 level perspective and as I expected the transition is seamless so my comments reflect on the whole e-book family published by the OnLineItalianClub, all value for money, in my opinion, I leave others to make their own judgement.
Why these e-books? I have bought many text books on the Italian language and committed a good number of them to the bin or ebay, where is ne when you need it!
A great deal of thought has gone into increasing the scope and difficulty of the content in each progressive workbook and I do believe that if I succeed in completing the workbook series that I can truthfully say “I can speak Italian”
1 grammar – The author has stripped way a lot of the linguistic jargon, possibly a bit severely at times (the sections on, for example il conjunctivo would benefit from more explanation on usage) but in the main the content is easy to read and sufficiently complete to be valuable.
2 vocabulary – most text books at some stage, often the index, create groups of related words – professions, food, clothing etc. The workbooks do the same but they also, to make learning easier, have created other groups fpr example acronyms (dietro sinistra etc,),words that have different meanings dependent on gender la porta il porto and diminutives etc. sorella sorellina
3 the listening exercises get more difficult from A1 level to B2 level, a real challenge which must eventually be mastered
4 As I have already noted conversation is the hardest skill to acquire, the listening exercises are good for this purpose and I have high hopes for the Skype lessons where a native speaker listens and comments on the student’s speaking skills are tested.
I recently installed Skype on my machine (a free download), I bought a cheap web cam and set of headphones and have started a course of Skype lessons. It must be said that sometimes the Skype connection goes down.
In conclusion I am impressed with the workbooks, the only criticisms I have are that not all the higher level Italian phrases are translated into English, this may well be a ploy used by the author to encourage the student to do the translation and an Italian transcript of each listening exercise would be helpful.
I commend the B2 workbook as I do all the workbooks.
John Thomson