OSEA Summer Intensive Maya Language Immersion Program

Coursework General Description
OSEA teaches students how to make the most of hands-on, immersion experience by teaching them not only the basic elements of Maya language, but also the tools derived from ethnographic fieldwork by which to create on-going self-directed learning through linguistic immersion.  The OSEA Language Program builds on daily classroom learning combined with structured methods that students use to initiate patterned, systematic learning in everyday speech situations and  immersion contexts.  These methods focus on student elicitation of vocabulary and communicative speech from native speakers. OSEA provides students tools to: learn how to initiate and sustain situated discourse; develop conversation on abstract issues; elicit, record and analyze genres of story-telling; develop meta-conversation with native speakers about Maya grammar and language use; create on-going field dictionaries; use native speakers as language trainers to check meanings and syntax in recorded materials; create archives of recordings with translations and transcriptions for continued learning. Course materials include Chicago Spoken Maya audio tapes and text, Maya-English & Maya-Spanish dictionaries, and OSEA Maya Learning Tools developed by Prof. Castañeda and used in his Maya courses at Indiana University.

OSEA uses ACTFL Proficiency Assessment Criteria for pedagogy and evaluation of competencies

Learning by immersion does not happen by itself! OSEA GIVES YOU THE TOOLS YOU NEED for continual self-initiated learning in Immersion Contexts