SWAHILI 111-1/2/3 (Formerly AAL 121 - 1/2/3) Swahili I

SWAHILI 111-1/2/3 (Formerly AAL 121 - 1/2/3) Swahili I

Overview of Class:

This is the beginner's Swahili class, and is open to undergraduate and graduate students. There are three courses in sequence from Fall to Spring. The course presents the essentials of modern Standard Swahili grammar while proficiency in the language is developed. The expectation is that by the end of the first year, a diligent student will be able to acquire ACTFL "novice mid" to "novice high" oral proficiency, along with basic literacy skills (see Foreign Language Annals Vol. 33, No.1, p. 12-18 for ACTFL descriptors). The course is organized on the national standard first-year text, Swahili: A Foundation for Speaking, Reading, and Writing, by Thomas Hinnebusch and Sarah Mirza. A significant amount of work for the course involves accessing the class's dedicated Blackboard web site and interacting with multimedia resources there. Students will perform some course assignments, take some tests, interact with digital audio and video files, and create a personal Web page within the Swahili I Blackboard site.

Registration Requirements:

None for 121-1; appropriate Swahili study background for further quarters. Course may be taken P/N if not used to satisfy WCAS or School of Communication language proficiency requirements.

Evaluation Method:

The course is designed and taught with an "ideal student" in mind who wishes both to study college-level Modern Standard Swahili as an academic subject, and to acquire a solid foundation of oral interactive and literacy skills for advanced academic work in the language, likely eventually involving field research. However, practically speaking, a significant number of enrollees in Fall Swahili I are taking the course as an elective and will not continue study beyond that quarter. Then, most students who continue with the Winter and Spring quarters are primarily if not solely interested in satisfying college/school foreign language requirements. Such motives need not conflict with the design and goals of the course. The pedagogical philosophy behind language proficiency requirements (both English and foreign language) should be sufficient to make any experience of Swahili I, for however many quarters, enjoyable and profitable. Making maximum use of resources and group learning opportunities ordinarily results in solid, practical language acquistion. Evaluation is based on regular, periodic writing assignments and tests of both oral interactive and writing skills: the current levels are constantly being assessed, and then feedback is offered based on these assessments. There is a written midterm and final examination, both of which contain an audio comprehension component.

Class Materials (Required)
Thomas Hinnebusch & Sarah Mirza, Swahili, A Foundation for Speaking, Reading and Writing, University Press of America, 1990 revised edition. $30.00 ISBN: 0761809724

SWAHILI 121-1/2/3 (Formerly AAL 122 - 1/2/3) Swahili II

Overview of Class:

This is the second-year Swahili course, and is open to undergraduate and graduate students who have completed first-year Swahili or its equivalent. There are three courses in sequence from Fall to Spring. All three use a Web-based "electronic textbook" created by and served from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; it is based on the popular modern Tanzanian novel by Euphrase Kezilahabi, entitled Rosa Mistika. The Fall quarter focuses on the first two chapters of the original novel, the accompanying e-textbook material, and roughly a chapter each week from the required printed textbook, Tusome Kiswahili by Muaka & Muaka. Similarly, Winter quarter work involves close reading of chapters three and four of the original novel, e-textbook work corresponding to those chapters, and grammar review focus on Swahili compound verb structures; work with Tusome Kiswahili will be completed by the end of this quarter. In Spring, chapters five through (concluding) thirteen of Rosa Mistika are surveyed through their summaries in the e-textbook, along with accompanying study material; grammar review is devoted to the Swahili verb extension system, including but not limited to its coverage in the four e-textbook units where it is examined. Spring material from the original novel is confined to limited excerpting necessary for comprehension and completion of accompanying exercises. As far as is feasible, Swahili is the language of instruction. Upon completion of the Spring course, a diligent student may expect to achieve an ACTFL rating of "intermediate mid" to "intermediate high" (see Foreign Language Annals Vol. 33, No. 1, p. 13-18 for detailed explanations of those descriptors).The Web-based e-textbook contains certain exercises, drills, and essay question projects, to be supplemented by exercises from Tusome Kiswahili. All assignments from the electronic and print sources are routinely recast for local use and administration via the course’s dedicated Blackboard site.

Registration Requirements:
AAL 121-3 or equivalent for entry into 122-1; appropriate Swahili study background for further quarters. Course may be taken P/N if not used to satisfy WCAS or School of Communication B.A. language proficiency requirements. Successful completion of the Fall AAL 122-1 quarter-course currently constitutes satisfaction of the School of Communication’s RTVF department’s foreign language proficiency requirement for a B.S. in Communication.

Class Materials (Required):
Leonard Muaka & Angaluki Muaka, Tusome Kiswahili, National African Language Resource Center (NALRC) Press, UW-Madison, 2006. $30.00 ISBN: 978-1-59703-010-6