About the Institute
The institute's language programs are designed for persons who want to develop proficiency in a foreign/second language. These credit programs are of particular interest to persons in professions or professional programs such as business administration, engineering, and agriculture, as well as to those interested in literature, linguistics, and language acquisition theory.
The interests of the program participants determine the areas of emphasis. The primary focus, in all our language studies, is on development of communicative competence. The participants proceed from descriptions of themselves and their milieus to descriptions of the culture being studied.
Enrollees may register for 4 to 12 credits. Grades are based on tests, homework performance, class participation, and the oral-proficiency level attained at the end of the language course.
Each of the eight language programs is offered consecutively over eight weeks; classes for most programs meet daily Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. (Spanish 001, 002, and 003 are also offered in the afternoons from 12:35 to 5:00 p.m. ESL 116G and ESL 497 are offered from 9:15 a.m. to 12:25 p.m.)
In languages offering three levels, each sequence lasts approximately two and one-half weeks. (Three language levels take the whole eight weeks to complete.) In languages offering only two levels, each sequence lasts four weeks. (Two language levels also take the full eight weeks to complete.)
High school students with strong academic aspirations may enroll in the Institute, as long as they are at least fifteen years old. All the programs are conducted on Penn State's University Park campus. For more information, contact Kathy Karcher at 814-863-5100; fax: 814-863-5190; or e-mail: ConferenceInfo1@outreach.psu.edu.
Conducted by the Departments of Comparative Literature, French, Germanic and Slavic
Languages and Literatures, and Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese
program of the College of the Liberal Arts
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