PLIDA - Progetto Lingua Italiana Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri Siena is a recognized Certifying Center authorized by the PLIDA Head Office. The PLIDA certificate attests proficiency in Italian as a foreign language. The PLIDA (Progetto Lingua Italiana Dante Alighieri) certificate is an official diploma issued by the Società Dante Alighieri under an agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (no. 1903 of 4 November 1993) and with the scientific approval of the “La Sapienza” University of Rome (agreement of 29 June 2004). The PLIDA is also recognized by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies (decree of 18 October 2002) and by the Ministry of University and Research as a qualification for the facilitated university enrollment of foreign students (ref. no. 1906 of 9 October 2006).

PLIDA certification evaluates skills in Italian as a foreign language according to a six-tier scale, from A1 to C2 in ascending order of difficulty, corresponding to the levels established by the European Council (Modern languages division: Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, evaluation - cf. Quadro comune europeo di riferimento per le lingue: apprendimento, insegnamento, valutazione - published in Milan by La Nuova Italia – Oxford, 2002).The Certification test is designed on the principles of the communicative approach and it is based on real-life tasks which test the ability to apply knowledge of the language within the chosen level, in the four linguistic skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking.