UCLA will offer a new intensive language program this summer
that will use Los Angeles’ language-rich community in
teaching students to speak, read and write.
The program, “Language Intensives in L.A.,” will
feature classes in seven tongues: Spanish, Arabic and Russian,
along with Amharic, spoken in Ethiopia, Catalan, spoken around
Barcelona in Spain, and Swahili and Yoruba, spoken in Tanzania and
Nigeria, respectively.
Students will take field trips around the city to explore
cultures that correspond with the language they are learning. Guest
speakers from Los Angeles who use languages taught in the program
will visit campus to chat with classes.
The idea is to create an interactive learning experience to
bring the region’s diversity into the classroom, said Olga
Kagan, director of the Center for World Languages, which is
organizing the intensives with UCLA Summer Sessions.
“L.A. has about 200 languages spoken,” Kagan said.
“So we sit right in the middle of it, but at the same time,
we teach the language in the classrooms as though there were
nothing around us.”
“We teach it as though it’s … a dead
language,” she added. “This language is not (dead)
““ this is living language.”
Each course will count for 12 or 15 credits, about equal to the
number students earn in three quarters of language learning.
Classes will last several hours each day for six to eight weeks
starting in June.
Possible class activities range from cooking traditional foods
to visiting a retirement center that houses native speakers of the
language being taught, said Lyn Repath-Martos, assistant director
for academic advising and student affairs at the Center for World
Languages.
Social situations like cooking and eating catalyze language
learning because students are more relaxed and less focused on the
fear of making a mistake in grammar or pronunciation, she said.
The program will offer full and partial scholarships to some
participants, contingent upon merit and need. Enrollment is not
limited to UCLA students, and coordinators are hoping to attract
high schoolers, Repath-Martos said.
The incentives for taking languages like Amharic and Swahili
vary by student, she said. Some need to fill a requirement. Others
may have learned the language once and forgotten it, or want to
connect with a grandparent who is a native speaker.
Kagan said language learners may simply be adventurous or have
an interest in the literature or politics of a culture. Students of
less commonly taught languages stand out among peers because they
possess unique knowledge, she added.
Six of the courses offered in the program are new; in the past,
only Spanish has been taught with an emphasis on connecting with
Los Angeles.
Several new languages will likely be added to offerings next
summer, including the Baltic tongues Estonian and Lithuanian, said
Kathryn Paul, assistant director for program development and
administration at the Center for World Languages.
This summer’s program is the pilot for what staff hope
will grow into a larger project in coming years, Repath-Martos
said. “L.A.: What richer place to do it?”