Study abroad opportunities

[Danko Sipka]

Dear Colleagues:

Drawing upon the interest of this discussion group in our target languages, we
are taking the liberty to inform you about the special study abroad
opportunities for you and your students offered by the Arizona State University

Critical Languages Institute (CLI, http://www.asu.edu/cli).

The following programs provide graduate and undergraduate students the chance
to earn fully transferable ASU credit hours while working at our accredited
partner universities in Eastern Europe.

a.      Semester or year abroad at the University of Tirana (Albania), Yerevan
State University (Armenia), Ss. Kiril and Methodij University (Macedonia), Adam

Mickiewicz University (Poland), University of Novi Sad (Serbia), and Kazan
State University (Tatarstan, Russia). Students can earn 14-15 credit hours per
semester taking courses in their field of specialization while immersed in the
target language and exposed to its intensive in-class instruction. Even though
the costs of this program are comparable or lower to those of one year or
semester spent at a university in the United States, we offer all interested
students help in applying for NSEP, Fulbright and other competitive grants to
cover the cost of their sojourn in the target countries. This program is
designed primarily for the students with the previous knowledge of the language

seeking to reach linguistic, cultural, and area-studies proficiency level
leading to prospects of employment in the trade, diplomatic, and intelligence
communities.

b.      Three-week summer practicum at the University of Tirana (Albania),
Yerevan State University (Armenia), Ss. Kiril and Methodij University
(Macedonia), Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland), Azbukum (Serbia). Students
earn two credit hours in the target countries by being immersed in its language

and culture. These courses take place in the first three weeks of August each
year. Our practicums are an excellent chance to prepare the ground for a
semester or year abroad.

For more information about both these options, please consult
http://www.asu.edu/cli,
follow the Study abroad link, write to cli at asu.edu, or
call at 480 965 7706.

In order to prepare the candidates for the semester and year abroad programs,
we offer intensive summer courses in all target languages.

This summer we will offer introductory and intermediate
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Armenian 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
that 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. 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 Language 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 - you can use 111223333 to
peruse the course (you will not be able to take the quiz if you do not register

for the course). 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).
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
Danko.Sipka at asu.edu
http://www.public.asu.edu/~dsipka

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------