South Asian Languages study and instruction in the United States

[Surendra Gambhir]

VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
Editors:  Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, New York
          John Peterson, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
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Dear All,

Through the forum of this listserv, I invite every one to share ideas about
the status of South Asian Languages study and instruction in the United
States. Please think along the lines of learners' needs, recent and new
appointments, teacher training, materials, integration of technology into
our curriculum, heritage learner issues, evaluation techniques,
articulation between different levels, summer programs, and research
related issues, etc.

The South Asia Council of AAS (Association of Asian Studies) and AIIS
(American Institute of Indian studies) recently constituted a task force to
prepare a report in this regard. We are collecting ideas so that we have a
list of the issues confronting the profession today. Your ideas will help
us to prepare a to-the-point questionnaire for a more systematic collection
of the information.

It is expected that administrators, tenured faculty, non-tenured faculty,
and others will have various perspectives in this regard. The purpose of
this open forum is to promote discussion on various perspectives. In the
final run, we will compile a report to share with every one, and especially
with administrators on various campuses. Everyone's contributions will be
acknowledged. If any one wants to send me the information directly, please
do so at sgambhir at sas.upenn.edu.

Currently, the study of several South Asian languages is a high priority in
the country and the birth of the South Asia Language Resource Center with
its base in Chicago is a welcome step in the direction of professionalizing
the teaching and learning of South Asian languages.

Thus, good information we collect will lead us to a better understanding of
the issues. This, in turn, will allow us to develop better plans and more
efficient solutions. I hope that many of you will be willing to be part of
this discussion. Please feel free to encourage others to participate in
this dialogue.

Best wishes,

Suren Gambhir
Chair, Task Force

University of Pennsylvania
Phone: 215 898 8438
Fax:     215 573 3400