MURFREESBORO — Learn to
converse in a foreign language in just a week this summer through fun courses again
offered at Middle Tennessee State University.
Registration is open for the
13th annual Summer Language Institute. The classes are taught by MTSU’s Center
for Accelerated Language Acquisition, or CALA, which is the language-training
center of the MTSU Honors College.
This year’s institute
offers five-day accelerated language courses for residents age 13 and up
in Chinese, French, Japanese, Spanish and Tamil (a popular language in India). The
courses target those new to a language or those wanting to sharpen their
current foreign language skills.
The first courses begin in late
May, with courses offered periodically through mid-August. For a full schedule,
costs, registration and to view a video, go to http://www.mtsu.edu/cala
and click on the “See Our Classes” button.
Classes are held in the Paul W.
Martin Sr. Honors Building. A searchable campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.
CALA has spent more than a
decade researching how the brain learns language best with the experts in the
field of psychology and brain research, according to Dr. Shelley Thomas, a
professor of foreign language and founder and director of the institute.
Research shows the best way to
learn a language is the same way you learned your native language — with lots
of hands-on methods that are enjoyable and take place in a fun, low-stress
atmosphere using movement, songs, games and stories.
Thomas noted that while the institute frequently teaches students who are
“completely new” to a language, some beginning students who go through two of
the five-day courses “have tested out of anywhere from one to four semesters of
college-level language classes” on MTSU's foreign language placement test. One
student was so impressed with the results and affordable costs, he actually
took three different languages in one summer, she said.
“The classes are fun and effective, so students are highly motivated to
continue their language study,” Thomas said.
No comments:
Post a Comment