News Details

Deadline :

Jan 31, 2009

Languages:

Hindi(Jaipur),Bengali(Kolkata),Tamil(Madurai),Punjabi(Mohali),Sanskrit(Pune)     Malayalam (Thiruvananthapuram), Marathi (Pune),Urdu (Lucknow)

Eligibility

AIIS will offer instruction in Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Urdu as well as other languages if there is interest. Instruction in Bengali, Hindi and Urdu will be offered at all levels. Students for other languages must have had two years of language study in order to participate. Students with disabilities are encouraged to apply; AIIS will make all reasonable efforts to accommodate them.

Language Program
Instruction will be offered at the AIIS Language Centers and the program will be administered in India by AIIS staff.  This is an intensive language program that provides four hours of classroom instruction five days a week.  Classes are small and multiple individual tutorials are provided.  There will be regular assignments outside of class and there is special emphasis on connecting with the local speech community and on self-management of learning. Participants are encouraged to identify and prioritize their needs and keep track of their language development. Participants must take part in all program events, such as attending films, plays, and other cultural activities. They are also encouraged to stay with local host families. This is not a research program; participants are expected to devote all their energies to activities that will increase their competence in all areas of language skills--speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Participants will have ample opportunity to study their research-related materials in the target language during personal tutorials.

Cost of the Program

The program fee for the fall semester program is $3,000, which includes a monthly stipend to cover living expenses. Fellowships are not available for the fall semester program so students need to procure their own funding and purchase their own plane tickets to India. A 50% non-refundable deposit will be required upon acceptance to the program.

Application Procedure

A check for $25 made payable to the American Institute for Indian Studies must accompany each application to cover processing costs. Applications and information are available at member institutions of the AIIS, from the AIIS headquarters or on the web:

American Institute of Indian Studies, 1130 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL  60637.  Tel. (773) 702-8638. <aiis@uchicago.edu>