Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 20, 2001

Volume 29, Number 27

Center offers programs in
uncommonly taught languages

Beginning next fall, students will have the opportunity to study languages not regularly offered in the Yale curriculum under a new program offered by the Center for Language Study (CLS).

The program, Directed Independent Language Study (DILS), will allow undergraduate, graduate and professional students to request the study of a language not offered or offered infrequently in the curriculum if such study is for valid academic reasons. If their request is approved, these students can undertake study independently or in small groups.

Maria Kosinski, a senior lector in French and director of the Summer Language Institute, will direct the new program. She will seek appropriate course materials, language partners and qualified testers for students in the program, and will develop a schedule with students for their course of study, which will be for a period of 6 to 12 weeks. Each student will participate in independent study and oral, audio, writing and reading exercises, and will spend 90-120 minutes each week with a language partner. Testing by a qualified professional will take place at least once in the term.

Students in DILS will not earn course credit, but their work in the program may provide an alternative method to fulfill their degree program's language requirement through a proficiency examination.

"DILS adds to the continuing efforts of the Center for Language Study to deepen and diversify language instruction for undergraduate, graduate and professional students on campus," says Nina Garrett, director of language study. Established in 1998, CLS is developing new programs and supporting a broad spectrum of initiatives in language teaching and learning, she says. Garrett works closely with all of Yale's language programs to develop innovative materials and new approaches to testing, and to support lectors and teaching fellows.

The CLS is now one of the sources for Instructional Innovation Grants, participating in a campus-wide faculty competition for the grants each spring. The center is also the liaison to the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, which offers further competition-based funding. As part of its efforts to enhance language study, the CLS has also assisted the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS) to offer new languages in response to curricular demands and student interest. Hindi was introduced in the spring of 1999 and continues to attract large numbers of students, says Garrett. Similarly, Vietnamese became a new offering last fall, and modern Greek will be taught for the first time in the fall of 2001. YCIAS also serves as the home for the Program in African Languages.

Yale's Language Lab is also part of the CLS. In May, when Rosenfeld Hall (where the Language Lab is located) is renovated, the CLS will move to 212 York St., where the facilities will include several multimedia classroom labs especially designed for language learning and teaching, as well as a faculty lab to support the development of language materials.

DILS is supported by University funds and outside grants, including federal National Resource Center grants to the European Studies and African Studies Councils of the YCIAS. Funding has also been provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the C.E. and S. Foundation of Louisville, Kentucky.

For more information on DILS, call (203) 432-4911 or email the director at dils@yale.edu. Information is also available on the CLS website at www.yale.edu/cls.

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