As I am myself a student of a foreign language, I can provide a method that has surely helped me a lot. You will start actually learn the proper Italian when you will sink yourselves in the real language. Studying the subject at school is not enough because it is not a complete preparation. In my opinion, all students should spare some of their time to listen to Italian songs or watch Italian movies so that they can get used to the pronunciation and to the fluency of the language. Everybody will need to learn how to communicate in real life, with people who have sometimes even not a perfect and academic accent so all students will need t be flexible and they will also have to recognise the difficulty of the process.
Once the student understands that he or she needs to do the best to learn a foreign language, then he or she is at a further step towards the achievement.