Language Study
Undergraduate and graduate students have very different needs and expectations when it comes to language study. Undergraduates might easily approach language study as a path to future adventure, or just as likely see language study as simply fulfilling a language requirement without a clear idea of how they might put the language to use later in life. Graduate students are often seeking a way to enhance their ability to conduct research in a meaningful way. The African Language Program seeks to support all students’ interests by offering enthusiastic and committed instructors whose aim is not only to teach a language, but also to introduce the student to a deeper understanding of the cultures that arise out of the language’s use. Far from the sometimes-narrow images portrayed in media, these are vibrant communities very engaged in the world. The African Language Program is a national leader in developing language pedagogy and digital instruction materials for African languages.
All African language courses at Boston University are four-skill courses meant to lead toward proficiency in oral expression, listening comprehension, reading & writing, and cultural understanding that approximate native speakers’ competence. The language courses are taught using a communicative teaching approach with various electronic and digital materials as aids in pronunciation, visualization, and contextualization. While the focus of the course is generally on a particular variety, students also learn important features of related dialects of the language to be able to communicate effectively in both urban and rural environments regionally.
The African Studies Center supports the study of seven African languages at Boston University, making it one of the largest African language programs in the United States. Visit the links below to find out more about each of the African languages taught at BU. Click on each language to find out more about where it is spoken.
Some things to consider about studying an African language…
As part of our language courses, each semester, students write and perform in skits at the African Language Theater Night.
Financial aid, in the form of Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships, is available for both graduate students and advanced undergraduate students studying African languages. The FLAS can be used to study languages during the academic year or the summer months, at BU or internationally, making it a very useful for students interested in African studies.
Students pursuing summer study of an African language have the opportunity to study within the US or in Africa. Domestically, most National Resource Centers for African Studies will have one or more intensive African language programs, others with federal funding from Project Go will too. A complete list of these domestic programs is being compiled as well as options for study overseas. The BU African Studies Center supports programs in Ethiopia, for the study of Amharic, Tanzania, for the study of Kiswahili, Senegal, for the study of Wolof, and Niger, for the study of Hausa.
The Minor in African Languages & Literatures enables undergraduates to study three years of an African language and to choose from a wide range of electives, including courses in African literature, oral traditions, education systems, and linguistics.
BU offers Study Abroad programs during the school year in Niamey, Niger, and Rabat, Morocco, and during the summer in Dakar, Senegal, where students can study Hausa, Arabic, and Wolof.
All students interested in language courses are advised to visit the course listings and consult with the center’s African Language Director to verify current offerings.
Have you ever heard of Ajami?
Did you know that some African languages were written with a modified Arabic script, called Ajami, possibly as early as the 15th century? Did you know that these Arabic-based alphabets are widely used in many parts of Africa, but only a few outside of Africa are literate in them? Ajami scripts are commonly used in urban market places and other centers of the informal economy, in rural areas, and in religious centers where the Qur’ānic school is the primary educational institution. Ajami plays a significant role in daily communication for traders, tailors, builders, parents, cooks, nurses, farmers, healers, and bicycle mechanics as they write such things as prescriptions, healing manuals, esoteric forms, records, poems, announcements, publicity, accounts, recipes, prayers, praises, and genealogies. Ajami supports many literacy activities for a wide range of people.
The African Language Program at BU is the first in the United States to recognize these old traditions of writing African languages in Ajami. Students of Wolof and Hausa are now being taught these languages in both the Latin-based script and Ajami script. Consider being among the first American students to learn the Ajami alphabet and gain access to a written world never translated before in any European language. Successful students could also take advantage of opportunities to work with ongoing research projects through the African Language Program.