A small number of unusually well-motivated students are
permitted to enroll in a program of supervised
self-instruction in Arabic, Hindi, Irish/Gaelic, Korean,
Portuguese, Swahili, or Swedish. The Self-Instructional
Language Program differs sharply from traditional
college-level language instruction both in its limited goals
and in its unconventional methods. The aim is almost
exclusively to develop an active oral command of the
language in question. The materials and methods used reflect
this emphasis: the textbooks are structured around oral
drills; extensive work with tapes is required; there are
regularly scheduled oral drill sessions with a
native-speaking tutor; and students take mid-term and final
examinations each semester.
The exact amount of material to be covered is announced
at the beginning of each semester. Drill sessions are
planned in accordance with the tutor's schedule, and
students are expected to attend regularly. It must be
clearly understood that these group meetings with the tutor
are intended as review sessions of material with
which the students are already thoroughly familiar from work
with tapes. The tutor's function is to serve as a control
and as a model of correct language use. He or she is not to
be viewed as a source of information about the
language. In fact, the entire tutorial is given over to
drills and conversation in the foreign language; there will
be no classroom instruction in grammatical analysis.
Regular and frequent work with audio materials
constitutes the heart of each course in the
Self-Instructional Language Program. The appropriate
recordings are loaned out at the beginning of the semester
or made available online. Students enrolled in this program
should count on spending between one and two hours daily
drilling with recorded materials.
Beginning, intermediate and advanced spoken Arabic,
Irish/Gaelic, Hindi, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, and
Swedish are offered on this basis when there is an
indication of sufficient student interest well in advance of
fall registration.
Students may not be enrolled in more than one course in
the Self-Instructional Language Program in any semester.
The beginning and intermediate courses in the
Self-Instructional Language Program must be taken for a full
year. College credit for each semester's work is given upon
the recommendation of outside examiners.
Prerequisite: permission of the coordinator of the
Self-Instructional Language Program.
Course numbers for Arabic, Hindi, Irish/Gaelic, Korean,
Portuguese, Swahili and Swedish:
105-106. Introductory Language Study (1)
210-211. Intermediate Language Study (1)
310-311. Advanced Language Study (1)