Summer Language Courses at ASU (Albanian, Armenian, BCS, Macedonian, Polish, Tatar)

[Danko Sipka]

Dear discussion group members:

Drawing upon the interest of this discussion group in our target languages, we 
are taking the liberty to inform you about the special language learning 
opportunities for you and your students offered in the summer of 2004 by the 
Arizona State University Critical Languages Institute (CLI). The CLI 
(http://www.asu.edu/cli) offers annual summer language courses for less-
commonly taught languages, follow-up three-week immersion practicums at our 
affiliated institutions in the target countries, and a semester or annual study 
abroad program at our partner universities.

This summer we will offer introductory and intermediate Bosnia
{c/n}/Croatian/Serbian and Armeinan as well as introductory Albanian, 
Macedonian, Polish, and Tatar at the Arizona State University main campus 
(Tempe, AZ), from June 1 to July 31, 2004, with summer practicums in August and 
study abroad opportunities in the academic year 2004/5.

In the summer of 2005, we plan to add Uzbek to the CLI language offerings.

CLI eight-credit-hour intensive courses come with a generous tuition waiver 
which generates more than a thousand dollars in savings for each enrolling CLI 
student. CLI students pay only a modest $300 application fee. Both the length 
and content of our courses enable FLAS, Fulbright, and other fellowships 
support funds to be used by graduate students pursuing summer language training 
in the CLI. A limited number of fellowships are available for Armenian and 
Tatar. We have simplified the CLI application procedures. Just go to 
http://www.asu.edu/clas/reesc/cli/onreg.htm and register.

As a regular feature of its summer session, the CLI also features topical 
workshops and one-on-one tutorials for those preparing grant proposals for 
study and research abroad.  For dozens of CLI graduates, these tutorials have 
yielded remarkable success in NSEP, Fulbright, Marshall, and other fellowship 
competitions. Other CLI graduates have now joined the U.S. Foreign Service or 
have taken international positions with major corporations.

The following features make CLI summer programming competitive with the finest 
national centers offering intensive summer language institutes:

a.	Sound methodological background
b.	Utilization of the state-of-the art instructional technology
c.	Highly qualified language personnel
d.	Rich cultural content
e.	Rigorous and comprehensive oversight and quality control
f.	Strong ties with institutions in target countries

We have been using the Interagency Linguistic Roundtable scale with our 
introductory courses bringing CLI participants to level 1+ in reading with 
other skills remaining between 1 and 1+ and our intermediate courses reaching 
level 2 in reading with other skills remaining between 1+ and 2. 

Our Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian course features a strong on-line component 
(http://www.public.asu.edu/~dsipka/syl1.htm), and its entirely on-line version 
will be made available to our students as a refresher intended to alleviate the 
problem of retention in the period between the introductory and the 
intermediate course. A sample lesson one can be perused at: 
http://www.asu.edu/clas/reesc/scr101, using the password ‘scr1’. The full 
course is available at http://cli.la.asu.edu/scr101 - student’s social security 
number is required to log in. All CLI courses will follow suit shortly and we 
will keep adding new hybrid components for our courses through our server 
services page: http://cli.la.asu.edu. 

CLI faculty are drawn from highly qualified linguists with years of teaching 
experience and a strong record of publications in the field (see 
http://www.public.asu.edu/~dsipka as an example). Short information about our 
instructors and their syllabi are available at: 
http://www.asu.edu/clas/reesc/cli/ltrain.htm.

In addition to the cultural content (complementing traditional grammar, 
vocabulary, communicative skills, and linguistic norms) of CLI courses, CLI 
summer sessions include the annual lecture series, movie showings, and social 
events rich in cultural content. Take a look at some pictures of our classes 
and social events (visiting ethnic restaurants) at: 
http://www.public.asu.edu/~dsipka/sylpct.htm.

Finally, we have established partnerships with key institutions in target 
countries securing the most favorable summer practicum and study abroad 
arrangements for our students.

If you have any further questions about our courses, please do not hesitate to 
contact us at cli at asu.edu or by phone at 480-965-7706.

Sincerely,


Danko Sipka
Research Associate Professor and Acting Director
Critical Languages Institute (http://www.asu.edu/cli)
Arizona State University
E-mail: Danko.Sipka at asu.edu
Web: http://www.public.asu.edu/~dsipka
Phone: 480-965-7706
Fax: 480-965-0310

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