International Language & Culture Institute (ILCI) - July 20-25

Curriculum

The Swahili ILCI will introduce students to the Swahili language and the various societies in which Swahili is spoken. Swahili (locally known as Kiswahili) is the mother tongue of the Waswahili and belongs to the bantu group of languages that are largely spoken in central, eastern and southern parts of Africa. The Waswahili are native to the coastal part of East Africa, stretching from southern Somalia to the north to the Comoro islands and northern Mozambique to the south. However, the Swahili language is widely spoken as a second language further inland.

Swahili has assumed a lingua franca status in Eastern Africa including the Great Lakes region and is spoken by over eighty million people. It is today the national-cum-official language of Kenya and Tanzania and is one of the working languages of the African Union. It is widely spoken in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Whereas there are numerous Swahili dialects especially in the coastal region, this class will focus on Standard Swahili, a standardized dialect that is based on Kiunguja, the dialect spoken on the island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania. In this class, students will learn basic conversational Swahili that will enable them to describe a variety of daily activities. Besides learning the Swahili alphabet and the Swahili sound system, students will learn greetings, how to order food in a restaurant, how to tell time in Swahili, days of the week and counting.

Culture and literature will also form an important aspect of this class. Students will explore cultural traditions found in the larger Swahili speaking region. Field trips will be planned to augment in-class activities.

The curriculum is designed for students with no previous knowledge of Swahili and will be conducted in Swahili and English. Neither grades nor academic credit will be given for participation in the Institute. However, participants will be expected to show a high level of motivation and achievement. Certificates for successful completion of the Institute will be awarded at the Closing Ceremony.