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Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dates of program: May 31 - August 3, 2012
Hosting institution: American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS) and the Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB)
Language offered: Bangla/Bengali
Levels offered: Beginning, intermediate, advanced

Program Structure

The CLS Bangla Program offers courses designed to develop students’ listening, reading, speaking, spoken interaction, and writing skills. Students will receive a minimum of 20 hours per week of formal classroom instruction. The curriculum is proficiency-based, which stresses communicative skills, and very little English is used in the classroom. Each day includes classes in spoken Bangla, grammar, listening and reading. Beginning students are instructed to learn the Bangla script prior to arrival, and their first several classes are entirely oral. The Bangla institute covers approximately one academic year of university-level Bangla coursework during the 8-week program.

Bangla CLS students present their final projects at a closing workshop.

Students travel in small groups to several areas in Bangladesh to experience various dialects and diverse cultures. Cultural excursions and community activities inside and outside of Dhaka are designed to enhance the language learning curriculum and students’ understanding of the Bangladeshi host culture. Participants in the CLS Bangladesh institute work with language partners who are university students in Dhaka. CLS students are able to spend time not only with their language partners, but also experience tremendous hospitality from the language partners’ families. Students are encouraged to spend weekends or to have meals with their language partners, and form a close bond throughout the summer while improving their Bangla language skills.

Learn more about the Bangla Language Institute of Independent University here.

Outcomes

In 2010, the CLS Program adopted the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) as an additional measure of the effectiveness and quality of the institutes overseas. Before the program, students take a diagnostic OPI test; at the end of their 8-week course of study, they take an ACTFL-certified post-program OPI assessment. The scores on these tests give students a concrete, widely-recognized measure of their speaking skills. In addition, students’ writing and reading abilities are assessed throughout the program in a variety of ways.

Student Activities

Bangla students visit a tea garden during a cultural excursion.

2011 CLS students Tara Clancy, Bennett Comerford and Ann Marie Spencer pursued their interest in sharing information with Bangladeshi students about studying in the United States. Through their interest in working with Bangladeshi students, they were invited by the American Center of the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka to participate in the pre-departure orientation for departing Bangladeshi Fulbright students.

All CLS participants design final projects related to their personal academic or professional interests. In 2011, Ann Marie Spencer’s project included a component where she used her Bangla language skills to interview Bangladeshi women in the local markets to discuss diversity in women’s choices of religious expression through their choice of clothing.

Alumni Highlights

Todd McKay participated in the 2009 and 2010 CLS Program in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is now finishing a Master’s degree in linguistics at the University of Utah and received an English Teaching Assistantship Fulbright Scholarship. He will be working with students learning English at a school in Bangladesh this fall. His focus will be on helping to bridge gaps between those in the English classroom and the rest of the community. “Building relationships that endure beyond the classroom is vital for helping achieve the educational goals of Bangladesh,” McKay says, “That is complicated by persistent lack of resources, but my aim is to help by creating a set of activities that can accomplish the goal while transcending material limitations.” You can also see a profile on Todd’s experiences in Bangladesh.

Program Highlights

View videos, read highlights, and more on the CLS Blog!

Alumni Ambassadors

Hasan Shahid, '10	Marielle Newman, '11	Todd McKay, '09 & '10