Summer 1999 Persian course at the University of Texas,
Austin
Possible Interest to Persianists with Students Finishing a First-Year
Course during the Spring of 1999:
The Summer 1999 Second-Year Persian Course at The University of Texas
at Austin meets four weekdays a week (M-Th) for eight weeks, from June
21 to August 13. Each class session lasts three hours, from 8:30 to 11:30
am. That amounts to about 95 classroom contact hours in the six-credit
course. This intensive, intermediate course is designed for (serious) American
and Iranian-American students who have completed a year of university Persian
study or its equivalent. The course aims primarily to increase efficiency
in reading Persian and secondarily to improve Persian listening and speaking
skills. It also aims to help dramatically increase passive vocabulary and
familiarity with Persian cultural terms. The course leads to student proficiency
in dealing with texts of academic and cultural interest to course participants
and in learning how to improve Persian language skills through self-study.
In-class work and conversations with the instructor in and outside of class
take place exclusively in Persian.
The course instructor has taught Persian language and literature at
The University of Texas since 1974. He has also served as Persian Language
Officer for the American Peace Corps and as Director of Persian Courses
at the Academy of Language in Tehran, and has written over a hundred articles
and upwards of twenty books, including these titles in the field of Persian
language instruction: "Persian Fiction Reader" (1998, revised
edition), "Persian Newspaper Reader" (1996), "Reading Iran
Reading Iranians" (1999), "Persian Fiction Reader Workbook"
(1999), and "Persian Vocabulary Acquisition: A Practical Guide"
(1999). Summer 1999 Second-Year Persian Course sessions deal with "Persian
Fiction Reader," "Persian Fiction Reader Workbook," and
a series of RIRI® modules which contain authentic texts of lyric verse
and essay-writing along with specific classroom and self-study workbook
activities and exercises. Course materials, which incorporate results of
research in Tehrân during the 1990s and have undergone fieldtesting
at New York University, University of Pennsylvania, The University of Arizona,
and The University of Texas, focus on the use of Persian in America by
academics. Audio cassette tapes accompany all course materials. Course
participants can expect to spend as many as three hours in self-study after
each three-hour class session reviewing the day's work and completing homework
assignments. Midway through the course and on its last day, course participants
take proficiency tests administered by outside testers. Optional extracurricular
activities include the showing of Iranian feature films (with parallel
"Iranian Movies Workbook" modules) and a series of weekly Persian-language
social events, three partly devoted to Iranian cooking lessons.
Tuition fees for the course amount to $1,050. Textbook materials and
audio tapes cost about $90. On campus housing costs, including fifteen
meals a week, amount to about $900. For application materials, contact:
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, TX 78712, 512-471-3881 (tel), 512-471-7834 (fax), sameena@mail.utexas.edu
(e-mail), menic.utexas.edu/menic/summer/ (web site). The application deadline
is April 15, 1999. For more information about Summer 1999 Second-Year Persian
Course specifics, including sample lessons, contact course instructor Michael
Hillmann at MELC, WMB 5.146, UT Austin, Austin, TX 78712, 512-475-6785
(tel), 512-471-4197 (fax), and mhill@mail.utexas.edu (e-mail).
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