About Us

LEZIONI D’ITALIANO offers private lessons taught by Carlos Capra to individuals and small groups (2 to 6 students) targeting fluency and comprehension in properly spoken Italian. We use a flexible teaching approach combining modern and traditional methodologies taking into consideration the student’s particular linguistic background, needs, interests, study habits and motivations.

Dr. Carlos Capra is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music where he is responsible for the development and implementation of the Italian diction and language classes for musicians in the voice division. He previously served on the faculty at the Dept. of French & Italian at The University of Texas at Austin teaching Italian language and culture since 1996 to 2013. He has extensive experience teaching language privately, Italian as well as Spanish and English as second language. He also speaks Sardinian and is studying French and German. Dr. Capra is a member of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages and of the American Association of Teachers of Italian, and he serves on the Advisory Council of the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce of Texas.

I am currently on the faculty of UT Austin’s Butler School of Music which I was invited to join to develop and teach the Italian diction and language program for musicians in the voice and opera areas (lyrical singers, conductors, stage directors, voice coaches).  Previously I had served on the faculty of UT Austin’s Department of French and Italian where I taught Italian since 1996 until 2012 (including instruction, development and implementation of curriculum and assessment of performance in the four major L2 skills of beginning, intermediate and advanced Italian language students, work with graduate student instructors, participation in graduate student’s dissertation committees in other departments, etc.). I have been teaching privately for almost as long. I have also taught Spanish at UT Austin and English abroad. I have studied foreign language methodology and second language acquisition in graduate school (although my doctorate is in music!) and abroad. I am working on my certification to teach Spanish in public schools in Texas (unfortunately there is no certification for Italian in Texas) and am certified abroad to teach English. I am a native bilingual (Italian and Spanish), a near-native speaker of English, have a working knowledge of Sardinian (Nuorese) and have studied German and French in addition to Latin. I have studied (as a teacher) and been exposed (as a student) to just about every important language methodology out there and keep current with publications, seminars, symposiums, etc. This allows me to use an eclectic approach adapted to each of my student (or group of students) picking and choosing from a vast array of methods and material and to create my own material. I try to figure out in the first lesson (or lessons) what works best for each student according to their personality, learning style, time and will to study between lessons, foreign language background, goals, etc. Then I keep adjusting our lessons to the students, the circumstances and the materials we are studying. I do not use one methodology or one book. I create my own material sand sometimes suggest different books (and films, readings, etc.) according to each student. My lessons vary greatly from student to student. I am also an interpreter and translator (English – Italian – Spanish). I hope you will give me the opportunity to work with you on your Italian!