This is a five-week, four-credit Swahili language and culture immersion course designed to be offered every summer term (June-July) starting in 2009 jointly by the Less Commonly Taught Languages Center (LING 0503) and cross listed in the Department of Africana Studies (AFRCNA 0508).
The Location
Karagwe is situated in the Kagera Region of northwestern Tanzania. It is bordered in the West by Rwanda and Burundi, the North by Uganda, and the East by Lake Victoria. Throughout its history, the Karagwe District has been a prosperous trade route, a site of colonial coffee production, and site of an influx of Rwandan refugees fleeing from persecution.
The Academic Program
The Swahili language and culture immersion program is a five-week, four-credit unit course designed to provide a unique educational opportunity for students to immerse themselves in the language and culture through classroom instruction, language exchange with native speakers, language workshops, excursions, and cultural activities. The program presents the fundamentals of Swahili by integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening with the development of grammatical skills and vocabulary for communicative proficiency. The program uses a functional approach and is ideal for students who would like to learn Swahili in a relatively short period of time as they also enrich their cultural experience of the Swahili way of life. It is designed with the objective that by the end of the program, students will gain what has come to be popularly known as the 5 Cs – communication, comparisons, culture, connections and something about communities that use the language.
The program consists of core language classes, workshops and activities with native Swahili speakers. It has an integrated curriculum designed to allow participants to progress rapidly and gain fluency in the language. Students will be taught valuable information regarding Swahili culture and society aimed at improving their linguistic and communicative skills and knowledge of the culture and people. Modern teaching methods that focus on instilling linguistic, practical, and cultural aspects of the language as well as the Swahili way of life will be used. Class work using everyday topics and interactive teaching methods ensure that students achieve the goals of each proficiency level and progress rapidly. Students will also have ample time for field trips, cultural events and excursions on the weekends for an exploration of the history and culture of the Swahili people.
The language classes will be taught by mwalimu Joseph Kabalimu, who is highly qualified and experienced in teaching Swahili. His training is in Swahili language and linguistics and he currently teaches Swahili at the host institution. He will use up-to-date and carefully selected materials, giving students valuable information on modern-day-Swahili culture and society while at the same time developing their language and communication skills. There will also be an onsite academic counselor fluent in English and Kiswahili available to provide continuous counseling and assistance to the students, and will accompany the Pitt team leader and the students on all trips and fieldwork activities.
Please contact Macrina Lelei or Jeff Whitehead for further information (contact info listed below).
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