Persian: Dushanbe, Tajikistan


Location: Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Dates of program: June 7 - August 3, 2012
Hosting institution: American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIrS)
Language offered: Persian
Levels offered: Advanced beginning, intermediate, advanced

Program Structure

The objective of the Persian CLS Program is to strengthen significantly the facility and proficiency of participating American students in both Persian and Tajiki-Persian languages by providing an integrated and professional program of language instruction through an immersion experience in Dushanbe.

The Persian institute covers approximately one academic year of university-level Persian coursework during the eight-week program, and is designed to meet the needs of students from a variety of language levels and backgrounds, from students who have one year of university-level Persian training or the equivalent (advanced beginning) to advanced learners.

Advanced CLS Persian class.

Formal classroom language instruction is provided for an average of four hours per day, five days per week, with a minimum of 20 hours per week of classroom instruction. Students also participate in cultural excursions and community activities inside and outside of Dushanbe designed to enhance the language learning curriculum and students’ understanding of the Tajiki host culture. Prospective applicants to the CLS Persian institute should note that living conditions in Tajikistan are more challenging than at many of the other CLS institute sites. Specific guidance on the living conditions is provided in orientation materials for accepted students. Note that electrical outages can be common and tap water is not potable.

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 eight-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

CLS students in a Persian bookstore in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

In 2011, participant Hannah Highfill organized an excursion for the CLS group to visit the Mowlana Sufi shrine in Dushanbe. Hannah gave a presentation to the group on the history and nature of Sufism and the importance of Yaqub Charkhi, the saint interred at the shrine.

Students also presented skits and traditional Tajik songs to each other, as seen in this video.

The CLS Persian institute was recently profiled in the CLS Program newsletter.

Alumni Highlights

CLS participant Wendy DeSouza (2007), completed her PhD in Iranian history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is now a professor of Islamic and Middle East History at California State University, Sacramento.

2010 CLS participant Bryan Prior worked as an analyst for BAE Systems where he supported the US Army in its efforts in Afghanistan. He used his language skills to help colleagues with their Farsi before they deployed to Afghanistan and developed a set of questions in Dari for those going to Dari-speaking areas of Afghanistan. His language skills from CLS also helped him secure a position with the Defense Intelligence Agency working on Iran. As an analyst at this new position, he will have the ability to use his language skills to interpret news feeds and untranslated intelligence. Read more about Bryan’s experiences.

Samuel Thorpe, 2007 CLS Persian participant, is completing the last year of his PhD program in Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. His focus is on Hebrew and Persian literature. In 2010-2011, he received the CLIR/Mellon Dissertation Research Fellowship for archival work in Israel and India.

Program Highlights

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

Alumni Ambassadors



Hannah Highfill, '10	Miriam Woods, '11