ARABIC

ADVANCED ARABIC LANGUAGE TRAINING

**THE CENTER FOR ARABIC STUDY ABROAD (CASA)**

**AT THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO**

###### 

The Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) is a consortium of twenty-nine
American universities that was formed in 1967 for the purpose of
providing advanced level training in Arabic language and culture at the
American University in Cairo. Since its establishment, CASA has trained
over 1,400 American students. The four programs described below are
offered during the 2007-2008 academic year.

\(1\) CASA Summer Program

This is a seven-week intensive summer program that offers twenty hours
of instruction per week. The summer program includes: (i) a course in
Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) titled *Umm d-dunya* and aimed at
developing proficiency in the spoken Arabic of Egypt; (ii) a course
titled *Egypt: Culture and Society* and conducted in Modern Standard
Arabic (MSA). The objective of this course is to introduce students to
aspects of Egyptian culture and society through printed, audio, and
video texts and activities that emphasize the development of the various
MSA skills; (iii) a weekly field trip connected to the *Egypt: Culture
and Society* course.

\(2\) CASA Full Year Program

This is a one-year program that includes the summer course outlined
above. The fall semester of this program offers eighteen hours per week
of training in i) ECA; ii) listening comprehension, and iii) reading
comprehension and vocabulary building. The fall program also includes a
weekly lecture series on a wide variety of topics. The spring semester
provides fourteen contact hours per week that include a required course
on writing and three elective content-based courses (all in Arabic)
chosen by the fellows based on their interests and areas of
specialization.

\(3\) CASA II Program

This program is designed for students who have completed the full year
CASA program within the past five years. The program provides the CASA
II fellows with the opportunity to spend one or two semesters in Egypt
working on further developing their advanced language skills in Arabic
or doing language-based research under the supervision of academic
specialists from various Egyptian universities.

\(4\) CASA Program III

CASA also provides refresher courses in Arabic for university professors
of the humanities and the social sciences who use Arabic actively in
their teaching and research. This course is funded by the US Department
of Education and the Fulbright Binational Committee in Egypt and
provides opportunities to study in Egypt for a period that ranges
between two and four months.

Dr. Mahmoud Al-Batal, CASA Director

University of Texas, Austin

Dept of Middle Eastern Studies

1 University Station, F9400

Austin, Texas 78712-0527

Tel: (512)471-3463

E-Mail:
[mailto:malbatal@mail.utexas.edu](mailto:malbatal@mail.utexas.edu)

# 

# 

# ARABIC

ADVANCED ARABIC LANGUAGE TRAINING

**THE CENTER FOR ARABIC STUDY ABROAD (CASA)**

**THE EXPANSION OF CASA CENTER IN DAMASCUS, SYRIA 2008-2009**

The Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) is a consortium of twenty-nine
American universities that was formed in 1967 for the purpose of
providing advanced level training in Arabic language and culture at the
American University in Cairo. Since its establishment, CASA has trained
over 1,400 American students. The four programs described below are
offered during the 2007-2008 academic year.

The Damascus program of the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) was
launched in June 2007 to accommodate increased demand in the U.S. for
advanced overseas intensive Arabic training. The geographical expansion
of CASA to a second Arab capital was a logical and practical solution to
several challenges and concerns. The original CASA site at AUC in Egypt
has reached its capacity and the demand for the kind of training that
CASA provides is increasing every year. Moreover, it is important that
the Superior level speakers we produce have a collective expertise that
covers as much of the Arab world as possible, both linguistically and
culturally.

CASA's ultimate goal of the expansion of CASA Center in Syria is to
accommodate 20 full-year fellowships, five summer fellowships, three
CASA II fellowships, and three CASA III faculty fellowships by 2011. As
part of the present grant's activity, CASA plans also to undertake three
material development projects in Syrian Colloquial Arabic (SCA) and
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and to provide teacher training for Arabic
instructors at the Arabic Language Institute at University of Damascus.

Dr. Mahmoud Al-Batal, CASA Director

University of Texas, Austin

Dept of Middle Eastern Studies

1 University Station, F9400

Austin, Texas 78712-0527

[mailto:malbatal@mail.utexas.edua](mailto:malbatal@mail.utexas.edua)

Tel: (512) 471-3463

#### CHINESE

###### ADVANCED CHINESE WITH RESEARCH PRACTICA

Bard College will conduct eight-week advanced overseas intensive Chinese
language training with research practica in the summer of 2008-2011. The
program provides a full year's worth of Chinese, an important step to
helping students reach an advanced level by the time they graduate from
college. In addition to the language course, the program is designed to
assist students in developing and conducting research projects in their
fields of concentration.

The program is based at Qingdao University, China, where the intensive
intermediate/advanced Chinese language training has been offered since
1998. Qingdao University is located in one of China's major cities, in
Shandong Province.

The research advisors are selected from the professors of the
university; the research buddies are selected from the graduate and
undergraduate students to assist program participants. Morning classes
in advanced Chinese will be followed by afternoon research and field
sessions, with the advice and assistance of the research advisors and
research buddies. The program will thus enhance the students' capacity
in Chinese and area studies and position them for future careers that
employ Chinese language.

Fourteen students will be selected to participate in the program in
2008.

Dr. Li-hua Ying, Project director

Chinese and Japanese Program,

Fairbairn 307, Bard College

PO Box 5000

Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 12504.

Tel: 845-758-7545, fax 845-758-7628

E-Mail: <ying@bard.edu>

**CHINESE**

**THE ACC INTENSIVE LANGUAGE TRAINING PROGRAM**

**FOR STUDENTS AND LANGUAGE PROFESSIONALS**

The Associated Colleges in China (ACC) is a consortium of six core
members and over 50 participating colleges and universities. The project
addresses several pressing *[issues and needs]{.underline}* in the
larger field of foreign language education and of Chinese
language/culture education in America: 1) the national paucity for
competent and fluent speakers of critical languages, of which Chinese is
one; 2) serious language loss and maintenance challenges every student
faces after study abroad programs have been completed; 3) the prevalence
of urban-based and classroom-oriented study abroad programs; 4) the lack
of opportunities to expose students to a comprehensive and in-depth
study of the Chinese culture and society; 5) the need to develop
experience-based study abroad programs for teachers of Chinese; and, 6)
the need to find innovative ways to inspire more American young people
to engage in foreign language/culture learning and K-12 Chinese language
teaching**.**

ACC will work in partnership with Capital University of Economics and
Business (CUEB) in Beijing, China, its collaborator of eleven years and
host institution, to achieve three programmatic objectives:

> **1) Establish new full-funded fellowships for students who commit
> themselves to a full year of study in China through ACC's Language and
> Culture program**. From 2003-2007, applications to the ACC program
> have grown from 123 to 203; an increase of 39 percent and a recent ACC
> survey indicated that only 10 to 17 percent of participants sign up
> for the full-year program, with the primary reason being financial
> constraints.** **The fellowships will enable students without
> financial means to engage in intensive advanced language and cultural
> studies to achieve an advanced high to superior proficiency of
> Chinese.
>
> 2\) **Expand the ACC post-study abroad field studies program by
> establishing new fellowships.** Established in 2007 with a grant from
> the U.S. Department of Education's Group Projects Abroad program and
> now primarily supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, the seven-week
> program demonstrated that well-designed field experiences can assist
> students achieve advanced high to superior level language and cultural
> proficiency. Due to the enormous success of the program, 16 students
> will participate in the Field Studies Program in 2008.
>
> 3\) **Launch a new six-week Chinese language teachers institute for
> twelve fellows who are in-service or pre-service K-12 Chinese language
> teachers.** Such an institute not only helps address the urgent need
> for qualified Chinese language teachers in K-12 schools in the U.S.,
> but it also provides opportunities for K-12 teachers to refresh their
> Chinese languages skills, learn advanced pedagogical strategies, and
> renew cultural awareness. A recent survey in the language field shows
> that 85 percent of teachers do not have adequate funding for their
> professional development, let alone the opportunity to do so in an
> overseas setting.

The ACC programs will expand a successful model of advanced Chinese
language acquisition and cultural immersion, building a continuum of
increasing exposure for students from kindergarten through post
baccalaureate study and meeting the nation's security and economic needs
through the development of the nation's capacity in foreign languages
and area and international studies.

Dr. Hong Gang Jin, Project Director

Director of the Associated Colleges in China

Hamilton College

198 College Hill Road, Clinton, NY 13323,

Phone: 315-859-4778, Fax: 315-859-4687

E-Mail: <hjin@hamilton.edu>

**CHINESE**

**LUTHERAN UNIVERSITIES ASSOCIATION, INC**

**VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY ADVANCED OVERSEAS INTENSIVE**

**CHINESE LANGUAGE TRAINING PROJECT\
**

Valparaiso University, building on the past two summers of experience in
offering language and cultural immersion programs in China, will launch
an eight-week advanced overseas intensive Chinese language training
project (plus a three-week pre-seminar language preparatory session) in
partnership with Zhejiang University of Technology in Hangzhou, China
from summer 2008 through summer 2011.

The project will recruit (1) nationally up to 16-20 undergraduate or
graduate students per year who have taken at least two years of Chinese
classes: students with any major can apply, (2) four to six K-12
in-service or pre-service Chinese language teachers, and (3) related
administrators and language curriculum specialists. Preference will be
given to educators from Indiana and Illinois.

The overarching goal of the program is to help participants achieve an
operational level of proficiency that enables them to function
linguistically in a broad range of Chinese situations. This goal will be
achieved through a rigorous curriculum that combines intensive, advance
language training in a Chinese-only environment with local internship,
home stay, rooming with a Chinese student, and other opportunities
available only in China.

By the end of the program, participants will be able to (1) discuss
abstract and complicated situations as well as debate and defend points
of views in clear, logical, and appropriate language; (2) understand
specialized speeches and comprehend mass media publications that include
newspapers, magazine articles, broadcasting, and online materials with
both speed and accuracy; and (3) write coherent articles and give
persuasive presentations on multiple topics with a much better
understanding of the Chinese culture.

Dr. Zhimin Lin, Program Director:

Professor and Director of Chinese & Japanese Studies Program

Valparaiso University

Valparaiso, IN 46383

Tel: 219-464-5749

E-Mail: <Zhimin.Lin@valpo.edu>

#### CHINESE

#### 

#### SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM FOR ADVANCED CHINESE LANGUAGE TRAINING

#### AT THE COUNCIL FOR THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF SCHOLARS (CIEE) STUDY CENTERS IN CHINA AND TAIWAN

The Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIEE) will
manage a scholarship program to provide external funding for students
studying Chinese at the advanced level at the CIEE Study Centers in
China and Taiwan. Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad scholarships will
be awarded to highly qualified candidates with at least two years of
advanced Chinese language training, a strong undergraduate academic
record, the perceived ability to reflect on and use their personal
experiences during their study abroad experience, to gain expertise in
the Chinese language and culture, and an intention to pursue advanced
studies and careers related to China in the areas of academia or public
affairs.

Categorized as a \"group IV\" language by the Foreign Service Institute,
it takes almost three times as long for American students of Chinese to
achieve proficiency compared with those of \"group I\" languages such as
Spanish and French. Given the learning environment in existing U.S.
academic settings, the success of advanced learning of Chinese as a
foreign language relies significantly on the incorporation of study
abroad into the undergraduate curriculum. Studying Chinese in China or
Taiwan not only expedites a learner's language acquisition, but also
dramatically improves their understanding of Chinese culture and
society.

Mr. Daniel Olds

Program Director, Asia Programs

Council on International Educational Exchange

7 Custom House St., 3^rd^ Floor

Portland, ME 04101

Tel: (207) 553-7624; Fax: (207) 553-0624

E-mail: <Dolds@ciee.org>

[http://www.ciee.org](http://www.ciee.org/)

# FILIPINO 

# ADVANCED FILIPINO ABROAD (AFA) PROGRAM

The U.S. Department of Education, Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad
(F-H GPA) program awarded funds to the Center for Southeast Asian
Studies at the University of Hawaii to conduct the Advanced Filipino
Abroad (AFA) program in the Philippines in 1991 and from 1993-2007.
These summer immersion programs provided scores of American teachers and
students the opportunity to learn Filipino (Tagalog) in a Philippine
environment.

The AFA programs will focus on advanced language acquisition through a
structured academic program complemented by substantial exposure to
native speakers that will in turn be strengthened through living for
eight weeks with a Filipino-speaking family. Fourteen students will
spend eight weeks at the De La Salle University (DLSU) Dasmarinas campus
and four weeks at DLSU in Manila.

The program's goals are to provide American students and teachers
advanced instruction in Filipino, to promote scholarly cooperation
between the U.S. and the Philippines, to provide participants the skills
necessary to do research in the Philippines, and to provide and test a
body of pedagogical materials for intensive language study abroad
programs and field test proficiency examinations in Filipino.

The AFA participants get six credits in Advanced Filipino from the
University of Hawaii at the end of the program.

Dr. Ruth Mabanglo

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages

2530 Dole Street, Sakamaki D-200

Honolulu, HI 96822

Tel: (808) 956-6970; Fax: (808) 956-5978

Email: <teresita@hawaii.edu>

###### 

######  BENGALI, HINDI, MARATHI, TAMIL AND URDU

###### 

###### ADVANCED LANGUAGE PROGRAM IN INDIA 

The American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Advanced Language
Program in India will provide language instruction to students studying
Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu. The Hindi program is located in
Jaipur, the Bengali program will take place in Kolkata, the Tamil
program will take place in Madurai, the Marathi program will take place
in Pune, and the Urdu program will take place in Lucknow.

The language instruction at the advanced level is provided by and under
the guidance of highly proficient professionals in India. The Chair of
the AIIS language committee through personal visits, workshops, and
program evaluations constantly monitors the language programs in India.

The objective of each program is to maximize the benefit from the
cultural environment in which students find themselves. In addition to a
carefully structured, but individually oriented, curriculum for class
meetings there are field trips, field projects, host families, bringing
various persons from the community into the classroom, journal writing,
and use of the audio-video media. All these resources are richly laden
with socio-linguistic variation. In all situations there is pre-activity
preparation and post-activity evaluation as well as problem resolutions.

An additional objective for the upcoming year is to continue to
emphasize the concept of self-management of learning. Students are
provided with orientation information to take charge of their own
learning, watch it closely, analyze it, and identify their needs in the
target language. The AIIS Advanced Language Program in India is an
exemplary combination of sound theoretical basis in second language
acquisition, sound pedagogy through workshops for continuous
professional development of instructors, and careful selection of mature
and motivated learners.

The AIIS will be able to fully fund twenty-two language fellows.

Dr. Philip Lutgendorf, Project Director

C/o Elise Auerback

American Institute of Indian Studies

1130 East 59^th^ Street

University of Chicago

Chicago, Il 60637

Tel: (773) 702-8638; Fax: (773) 702-6636

E-mail: [maiis@uchicago.edu](mailto:aiis@uchicago.edu)

# INDONESIA 

# ADVANCED INDONESIAN ABROAD PROGRAM IN INDONESIA

The 2008 Advanced Indonesian Abroad Program in Indonesia, the
thirty-second program organized by the Consortium for the Teaching of
Indonesian and Malay (COTIM), will be administered by Ohio University
and conducted at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (UKSW) in Salatiga,
Java, Indonesia.

The program is designed to provide intensive and specialized instruction
in Indonesian for students and teachers from a variety of U.S.
institutions and from a number of different disciplines who are planning
or pursuing careers in Southeast Asian studies. Participants will
receive advanced instruction in Indonesian as well as in-country
experience. In addition, the program stimulates scholarly cooperation
between U.S. and Indonesian institutions and is the site for the
developing and testing of new materials for Indonesian language
teaching. Over the years since its inception, this program has continued
to grow and develop to become a fine model of intensive language
training at the advanced level.

The nine-week (June 16 to August 16, 2008) program will provide 12
participants with language instruction to supplement their previous
training in Indonesian and to attain a relatively high level of
competence in the language, in the range of 2-3 on the five-point scale
of the U.S. Foreign Service Institute ratings. COTIM is dedicated to
language study that makes use of materials that are both current and
authentic (created by Indonesians for Indonesians, rather than created
for the second-language learners), and which reflect a variety of
genres.

Two types of evaluation will be conducted. First, the participating
students are evaluated in order to ascertain their instructional needs
and to measure their progress made during the course of the program.
Second, the program will be evaluated by an external evaluator in order
to ascertain how well it meets its stated objectives.

Project Directors:

1\. Gene Ammarell, Director, Southeast Asian Studies Program

2\. Anthony Medrano, Assistant Director, Southeast Asian Studies Program

Center for International Studies, Ohio University

211 Yamada International House

Athens, Ohio 45701

Phone: +1 740 593 1684

Fax: +1 740 593 1837

E-mail: <ammarell@ohio.edu>; <medrano@ohio.edu>

# JAPANESE

# 

# INTER-UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIES \--

**PROJECT TYPE 4: ADVANCED OVERSEAS INTENSIVE LANGUAGE TRAINING
PROJECT**

The Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies provides a
carefully selected group of college/university students with intensive
training in speaking and reading Japanese at the intermediate and
advanced level. Up to 60 students are admitted annually and the number
of graduates to date is just over 1,500. During 2008-09, we anticipate
47 students to enroll in the 10-month program and that 13-14 of these
students will receive a partial tuition scholarship award from the Group
Projects Abroad Program.

The Center admits students for two subprograms: (1) a pre-academic
subprogram for students intending to pursue academic careers teaching
Japanese or Japanese studies; and (2) a pre-professional subprogram for
students who plan careers in government, law, journalism, business,
international development, or other non-academic professions.

Admission is open to all qualified students from accredited colleges or
universities who have completed two years of Japanese language training
or its equivalent, regardless of their gender, age, race, national
origin, color, disability, sexual orientation, religious affiliation or
institutional affiliation. Applicants will be selected on the basis of
their general promise, their record of academic achievement, and their
proficiency in Japanese as measured by the Japanese language proficiency
test created for that purpose at the Inter-University Center and
administered every year to all applicants.

The Center program lasts for ten months. All teaching materials are in
Japanese; all instruction is carried out in Japanese and all teachers
are native speakers of Japanese. The teaching staff is recruited on the
basis of national searches in Japan. Students abide by a "Japanese Only"
pledge that requires them to speak only Japanese while undertaking daily
activities at the Center.

The Center program, reinforced by the experience of living in a Japanese
environment, brings students to a level of competence in Japanese that
the best American programs can achieve only after several years of
advanced training if at all. At the end of the program it is expected
that students will be able to use their Japanese for effective academic
research or other professional use. Almost all students reach a
proficiency level equivalent to 2 on the FSI scale, and the best
students reach a level equivalent to 4 and 4+.

The Center is operated under the governance of a consortium of sixteen
American universities. A Japanese staff at the Center in Yokohama and an
American staff at Stanford University are responsible for day-to-day
administration of the program.

At present, the Center is funded by income from the U.S. Department of
Education Group Projects Abroad program, the Japan-U.S. Friendship
Commission, attendance fees, university contributions, and textbook
sales, as well as by fellowship grants from the following organizations:
the Blakemore Foundation, the Tokyo Club, the Shoyu Club, the Japan
Foundation, the America-Japan Society, the College Women's Association
of Japan, the Cressant Foundation, the UFJ Foundation, the Ito
Foundation USA, and the Sato Foundation. In addition, the Center
receives material support from the City of Yokohama in the form of
rent-free office and classroom space.

**Project Director:**

Dr. Steven D. Carter, Chair and Professor of Asian Languages

Executive Director, Inter-University Center for Japanese Language
Studies

Encina Hall, Room E009, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6055 USA

Tel: 650-725-1490 Fax: 650-723-9972

Email: <stacey.campbell@standford.edu>

##### KHMER 

**ADVANCED STUDY OF KHMER (ASK)**

**Summer Abroad Program In phnom penh, CAMBODIA**

![](media/image1.png){width="4.784027777777778in"
height="4.804861111111111in"}The Advanced Study of Khmer (ASK) Summer
Abroad Program (June 9th -- August 1^st^, 2008^)^ is an intensive
eight-week Khmer language-training program held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
It aims to fill a void in the U.S. academic community by providing third
year level Khmer students with a \"one-of-a-kind\" opportunity to
acquire the linguistic foundation necessary to engage in academic
research, professional discourse, and cultural interaction with all
segments of Cambodian society.

This program is sponsored by the College of Languages and Literature at
the University of Hawai'i (UH), and by the Royal University of
Phnom-Penh (RUPP) in Cambodia. The ASK project will increase the number
of linguistically competent Khmer-speaking professionals available for
employment in federal agencies, departments responsible for national
security, and all non-governmental agencies. Also, it will promote
scholarly cooperation and cultural understanding between Cambodia and
the U.S.

![](media/image1.png){width="4.784027777777778in"
height="4.804861111111111in"}The ASK curriculum is intensive, and
implements eight instructional modules based on ACTFL proficiency
guidelines. Instruction is given to small individualized groups taught
by Khmer language professors from the Institute of Foreign Languages
(IFL) at RUPP. ASK is a structured academic program consisting of four
hours of formal classroom language and culture learning instruction each
morning, followed by three hours of hands-on application using
task-based activities at the pre-arranged sites to engage, interact,
exchange, compare, hypotheses, analyze, and discuss real situations and
issues with the community. In addition, the curriculum includes a
one-week homestay with rural families in local villages and weekend
field trips to outlying areas of Phnom Penh. In language study,
immersion is fluency\'s best guarantee.

This immersion provides the best opportunity for students to learn,
grow, and understand Khmer language, culture and its people. In
addition, the ASK project will increase the number of Khmer
linguistically competent professionals across the United States to
supply its shortage domestically and internationally.

Dr. Chhany Sak-Humphry

Project Director

University of Hawaii

Hawaiian of Indo-Pacific Languages

2540 Maile Way, Spalding Hall 255

Honolulu, HI 96822

Tel: (808 956-8672/7452; Fax: (808) 956-5978

E-mail: <sak@hawaii.edu>

RUSSIAN

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND AREA STUDIES PROGRAM, SUMMER RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
TEACHERS PROGRAM, EURASIAN REGIONAL LANGUAGE PROGRAM, RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
FLAGSHIP PROGRAM

Since 1976, American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS
(American Councils) has worked to advance education, research, and
mutual understanding across the United States and the nations of Eastern
Europe, Eurasia, and Southeast Europe. American Councils programs are
designed to improve the quality of Russian and Eurasian language
instruction in the United States and to enable teachers, students, and
professionals to attain advanced proficiency levels in Russian and
Eurasian languages through substantial immersion experiences in the
target culture.

American Councils has Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad support for
four overseas language study programs:

\(1\) The Russian Language and Area Studies Program (RLASP) offers
undergraduate and graduate students intensive language training and
seminars in literature, area studies, and culture at Russian
institutions for a summer, semester or academic year.

\(2\) The Summer Russian Language Teachers Program enables U.S. teachers
of Russian to study advanced Russian, Russian literature, linguistics,
and culture for six weeks at Moscow State University.

\(3\) The Eurasian Regional Language Program enables advanced
undergraduates and graduate students to study virtually any of the
languages of the independent states of the former Soviet Union in an
overseas, immersion-based setting for a semester, summer or academic
year.

\(4\) The Russian Language Flagship Program provides already advanced
learners of Russian the rare opportunity to achieve
superior/professional proficiency levels through a year-long program of
study and practical training tailored to their professional interests
and academic specialization.

There will be 61 advanced learners of Russian participating in the
program of 2008.

Dr. Daniel E. Davidson

President, American Councils:

ACTR/ACCELS (Washington, D. C.)

1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW Suite 700

Washington, DC 20036

Tel.: (202) 833-7522; Fax: (202) 833-7523

E-mail: <Davidson@americancouncils.org>

##### SWAHILI

**Intensive Advanced Kiswahili Course in Tanzania**

The African Studies Center and the Department of Linguistics and
Languages at Michigan State University will sponsor an eight-week Summer
Intensive Advanced Kiswahili program in Tanzania from 2008 to 2011. The
project aims to take advantage of the cultural and linguistic
environment of the Kiswahili speaking environment where Kiswahili is the
national language, an environment that is not available in the US. It
also aims to develop the proficiency of the participants in
cross-cultural communication by experiencing the culture and life among
the people in Tanzania. The main emphasis of the project will be in oral
proficiency and the use of Kiswahili in culturally appropriate ways, as
well as advanced reading and writing skills.

In Tanzania, training will take place at the MS-Training Center for
Development Cooperation (MS-TCDC), which has hosted the Kiswahili Group
Project Abroad from 2004 to 2007 in collaboration with the University of
Dar es Salaam. The instruction will be conducted by the highly
proficient and professional Kiswahili language teachers and
cross-cultural communication trainers. In order to achieve the program
objectives, participants will be exposed to carefully designed
tailor-made classroom curriculum, educational excursions, host family
stays, journal writing, literature, projects, and audio-video media.

Participants of the program will be students with two years of Kiswahili
instruction selected from applicants in a national competition by a
panel from the African Language Teachers Association (ALTA). The
participants will be evaluated throughout the program to measure their
progress and to determine which level of proficiency they reach. Program
participants will evaluate the program at the end, and an external
evaluator will observe and evaluate how the objectives are achieved. The
curriculum, the itinerary, and all aspects of the planning and
implementation of the program will be reviewed by the U.S. external
reviewer and consultant.

This project will involve the collaboration of faculty from Michigan
State University, the University of Florida, and Kiswahili specialists
of ALTA with the oversight of the Association of African Studies
Programs (AASP) and ALTA.

Dr. Deogratias Ngonyani, Director

Associate Professor of Kiswahili and Linguistics

Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African
Languages

Michigan State University

Lansing, MI 48824

Email: <ngonyani@msu.edu>

Phone: 517-353-4051

Fax: 517-432-2736

**THAI**

**ADVANCED STUDY OF THAI (AST)**

**ADVANCED OVERSEAS INTENSIVE LANGUAGE TRAINING PROJECT**

Advanced Study of Thai (AST) is conducted over an eight-week period
(mid-June to mid-September) in Chiang Mai, Thailand in cooperation with
Chiang Mai University. AST is supported by a consortium of US
universities: Arizona State, UC-Berkeley, UC-Los Angeles, Cornell,
Hawaii, Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Washington, Wisconsin, and
Yale.

AST provides intensive, advanced Thai instruction for up to twelve
participants in a task-based curriculum that emphasizes communicative
skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Classes are small,
averaging five to six students each and all instructors are experienced
pedagogues from the Faculty of Humanities of Chiang Mai University
(CMU). The formal in-class sessions, which are structured around a
textbook authored by former AST instructors at Chiang Mai University,
are supplemented by homework assignments that require interactions in
the community; in addition field trips are included for all
participants. All of the language to which AST participants are exposed
is authentic Thai.

Formative and summative evaluations are conducted and participants in
AST programs over the years have demonstrated significant improvement in
proficiency, as determined by an American Council for the Teaching of
Foreign Languages (ACTFL) style pre-test and post-test.

AST enrolled its first group of students in 1986. The program is
coordinated by the University of Washington's Southeast Asia Center with
extensive knowledge of the program content, as well as visa formalities
and travel arrangements.

Dr. Thomas W. Gething

Affiliate Professor, Asian Languages & Literature

Acting Director, Southeast Asia Center

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington 98195-3650

Tel: (206) 543-4836; Fax: (206) 685-0668

E-mail: <gething@u.washington.edu>

## [***http://depts.washington.edu/\~seac/ast/***](http://depts.washington.edu/~seac/ast/).

> TURKISH
>
> ARIT-AATT SUMMER FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM FOR
>
> ADVANCED TURKISH LANGUAGE STUDY

Under this project, 15 students will be supported to study advanced
Turkish at the eight-week summer intensive language program utilizing
the resources and facilities of Bogaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey.

This program has been designed to provide the equivalent of a full
academic year course in advanced Turkish. Group Projects Abroad funds
will be used in support of advanced level language training of these
qualifying undergraduate and graduate students recruited nationwide and
selected by a committee based on proficiency assessment of the
applicants' Turkish language skills.

Dr. Erika H. Gilson, Project Director

Department of Near Eastern Studies

Princeton University

110 Jones Hall

Princeton, NJ 08544-1008

Tel: (609) 258-1435; Fax: (609) 258-1242

E-mail: <ehgilson@princeton.edu>

**VIETNAMESE**

**VIETNAMESE ADVANCED SUMMER INSTITUTE (VASI)**

The Vietnamese Advanced Summer Institute (VASI) is an intensive
eight-week course of study in advanced Vietnamese conducted for four
weeks at the Vietnamese Language Center in Hanoi and for four weeks at
Vietnamese Language Studies in Ho Chi Minh City.

VASI is equivalent to a full year\'s academic work and is offered to
twelve individuals selected nationally. VASI seeks to ensure that
institute participants achieve a demonstrable improvement in speaking,
listening, reading, and writing Vietnamese as it is used in ongoing
political, economic, and social discourse by the completion of the
program. The program aims to significantly increase the number of
students entering the field of Vietnamese studies with a high
proficiency in the language.

VASI is supported by the Group of Universities for the Advancement of
Vietnamese Abroad (GUAVA) consortium, whose member institutions are
Arizona State University, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Cornell University,
University of Hawaii, Harvard University, University of Florida,
University of Michigan, Temple University, University of Washington,
University of Wisconsin, and Yale University.

UC Berkeley's management of this program builds on more than a decade of
experience first launched with seed grants from the Luce and Ford
Foundations and continued as part of the Fulbright-Hays program. VASI
was previously headquartered at the University of Washington (1996-2001;
2004-2007) and at the University of Hawaii (2001-2004).

**Project Director:**

Prof. Peter Zinoman

Center for Southeast Asia Studies

University of California, Berkeley

2223 Fulton St., No. 617

Berkeley CA 94720-2318

Tel. (510) 642-3609

Fax (510) 643-7062

E-mail: <vasi@berkeley.edu>

# YORUBA

# INTENSIVE ADVANCED YORUBA COURSE IN NIGERIA

The Center for African Studies, University of Florida at Gainesville, is
initiating an eight-week Intensive Advanced Yoruba Summer Course in
Nigeria as part of its Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad from 2008 to
2011.

The primary objective of this program is to provide an avenue for
American students to achieve advanced competence in the study of Yoruba
language and culture in an environment where the language is spoken on a
daily basis. The Center accepts applications nationally from
undergraduate and graduate students who have studied Yoruba language at
the college level for a minimum of two academic sessions. Students who
are enrolled in their second year of language study will be encouraged
to apply. Up to fifteen (15) participants will be selected for the
program every summer.

The Institute of Cultural Studies hosts the program in Nigeria at
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, but Yoruba professors and
lecturers in the Department of African Languages and Literatures of the
University teach all the courses. The courses emphasize mastery of
speaking and comprehension skills at the advanced level as recommended
by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
Students who successfully fulfill all necessary course requirements will
have their credits transferred by OAU directly to their individual
universities. The students, their teachers, and an external evaluator
evaluate the program itself. The yearly program evaluation and the
program director's report are forwarded to the U.S. Department of
Education and to the AASP/ALTA (GPA) Oversight Committee.

Dr. Akíntúndé Akínyemí

Assistant Professor of Yoruba Language & Literature

Dept. of African and Asian Languages & Literatures

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL. 32611-5565

E-mail: <akinyemi@aall.ufl.edu>

Tel.: (352) 392 7082; Fax: (352) 392 1443

**ZULU**

INTENSIVE ADVANCED PROGRAM FOR ZULU IN SOUTH AFRICA

The University of Pennsylvania's African Studies Center is directing an
Advanced Intensive Group Project Abroad for Zulu in KwaZulu-Natal, South
Africa, in the summer of 2008. The purpose of the project is to expand
and enrich the participants' knowledge of the Zulu language and culture
to prepare them for careers related to Southern Africa. The project will
offer intensive intermediate and advanced levels of Zulu. The curriculum
will emphasize communicative pedagogical strategies to enable the
students to use the Zulu language appropriately in various contexts.
Applications were accepted nationwide and eighteen participants were
selected from a pool of undergraduate and graduate students. The program
is funding sixteen American participants; two non-American participants
are funding their own way. Selection criteria included two semesters of
Zulu (or an equivalent) for the intermediate level entry, and four
semesters for the advanced.

The University of Pennsylvania is administering the project held in
affiliation with the School of Language, Culture and Communication
(SLCC) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Pietermaritzburg. The
project director and faculty members of the Discipline of IsiZulu and
the School of Education & Development will teach the course. Professors
from the University of KwaZulu-Natal will lead a series of lectures, and
Zulu-language student tutors will serve as teaching assistants.

The project begins with a two-day orientation program in Durban,
followed by an eight-week intensive Zulu-language study at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal. Formal instruction in Zulu will be
supplemented with lectures, as well as field trips and home stays in
urban and rural areas providing participants with opportunities to meet
Zulu-language speakers from all walks of life and to participate in Zulu
family life and multifaceted cultural activities of KwaZulu-Natal. An
external evaluator will evaluate the project; the evaluation will be
forwarded to the Zulu GPA Committee, and the AASP/ALTA GPA Oversight
Committee.

Dr. Audrey N. Mbeje

Director, Program in African Languages

African Studies Center

647 Williams Hall

255 South 36^th^ Street

Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Tel.: (215) 898-4299; Fax: (215) 573-7379

Email: <mbeje@sas.upenn.edu>

[**http://www.africa.upenn.edu**](http://www.africa.upenn.edu/)