When the fall semester
begins, The University of Iowa will gain a distinction:
it will become the
only place in the United States where students may
learn Kannada, a language of India’s southern
state of Karnataka.
Kannada will be taught at Iowa on a regular basis
for at least the next four years. In addition, UI
students will be able to learn Arabic for the first
time in a combined undergraduate-graduate course
in the Department of Linguistics in the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The new offerings come as a result of a UI International
Programs initiative to strengthen new undergraduate
and graduate programs in international studies and
to fund courses in less commonly taught languages.
The initiative is funded by two related three-year
grants from the U.S. Department of Education totaling
$1.4 million. Approximately half this sum will be
awarded to graduate students as fellowships for language
and area studies.
The highly competitive awards designate UI International
Programs as a Title VI National Resource Center for
International Studies, says William Reisinger, associate
provost for academic programs and dean of UI International
Programs.
“This reflects the federal government’s
recognition of the University’s nationally
distinctive commitment to international education,” Reisinger
says. “The grants allow Iowa to continue to
be a national leader, with innovative approaches
that meet the needs of students and faculty in the
21st century.”
This is the seventh time since 1985 that the University
has received the designation.
Codirectors for the NRC international studies center
are Paul Greenough, a professor of history and community
and behavioral health and director of the Global
Health Studies and Crossing Borders programs, and
James Pusack, associate professor of German and department
chair. Both are faculty members in the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Kannada will be taught by Kilingar Venkappa Tirumalesh,
currently a specialist in syntax and philosophy of
language at the Central Institute for English and
Foreign Languages in Hyderabad, India. The course
will be listed in the Department of Asian Languages
and Literature in the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences.
“The total number of speakers of Kannada as
mother tongue/first language is around 25 million,” Tirumalesh
says via e-mail. “And if speakers who use it
as a second language are included, it may be as high
as 40 million or so.”
The idea to promote Kannada came from a group of
scholars with University connections: U.R. Ananthamurthy,
a visiting writer in the International Writing Program
in 1974 and a Fulbright scholar in 1986; A.K. Ramanujam,
a distinguished modern English poet and essayist
and translator of medieval Kannada and Tamil poetry
and
folklore;
Sheldon Pollock, an eminent Sanskrit expert and former
chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Literature;
Philip Lutgendorf, associate professor of Asian languages
and literature and modern Indian studies cochair
in the South Asian Studies Program; Michael New,
president of the UI Foundation; and Greenough.
The second new language, Arabic, is spoken by 186
million people in more than 20 countries in the Middle
East and Africa. Because it is the language of the
Qu’ran, the holy book of Islam, it is regarded
as a first language in Muslim states. It is sixth
on the list of major languages spoken in the world,
behind Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, English,
and Bengali. The instructor will be Morocco native
Mouna Sari, lecturer in linguistics.
“All sections of my undergraduate class for
this fall are closed already,” Sari says. “I
think students are looking for something different,
something to give them an edge. I’ve had inquiries
about whether a Middle East minor might be developed.”
Kannada and Arabic join more than a dozen other
languages taught at the University. These include
German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian,
Swahili, Zulu, ancient Greek, Latin, Chinese, Japanese,
Hindi, Korean, Sanskrit, biblical Hebrew, Czech,
Polish, Croatian, and American Sign Language.
Of all the languages taught on campus, the fastest
growing nationally is American Sign Language. At
Iowa, a four-semester sequence in American Sign Language
and a certificate program in American Sign Language
and Deaf Studies are offered in the College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences. Students may take a sequence of
courses in this language to fulfill General Education
Program requirements.
Kimela Nelson, coordinator of the American Sign
Language program, says, “Every one of our introductory
courses is filled to capacity. We have six and we
could offer six more and fill them.”
In addition to Arabic and Kannada instruction, the
NRC grants, which run from 2003 to 2006, will support
25 new international studies courses and advanced
courses in Swahili for students who want to go beyond
the elementary and intermediate Swahili courses currently
offered.
The grants will allow International Programs to
strengthen existing doctoral programs in Crossing
Borders and in Foreign Language Acquisition, Research,
and Education and to fund the Foreign Language and
Area Studies fellowships for less commonly taught
languages.
In addition, the funds will support professional
development for faculty, scholarships for graduate
students, and new outreach initiatives for the campus
and community.
by Anne Tanner
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