Latin American Languages
The Center for Latin American Studies, in collaboration with the UF Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and other academic units, promotes courses, offers resources and sponsors study abroad programs for a variety of less commonly taught Latin American Languages.
Brazilian Portuguese
Courses in Brazilian Portuguese language and Luso-Brazilian culture may be taken for credit toward an undergraduate certificate or minor in Latin American studies or toward a specialization in Brazilian Studies for the MA degree in Latin American Studies. Several Study Abroad Programs in Brazil are available for semester or summer study. US graduate students with interest in studying Portuguese during the academic year or the summer may apply for a FLAS Fellowship. Elizabeth Ginway and Charles Perrone are UF’s Portuguese faculty.
The Center for Latin American Studies is certified to offer the CELPE-Bras Brazilian Portuguese Proficiency Exam twice per year. Information about the CELPE-Bras exam is available from the Brazilian Ministry of Education. Registration is completed online.
Registration for the fall 2008 CELPE-Bras exam will be from August 8-September 7. The exam will be administered on October 22nd at the University of Florida campus.
The Portuguese Language Journal (PLJ) and the Portuguese Language Resource Site, hosted by the Center, promote and disseminate information about the teaching of Portuguese as a foreign language.
Haitian Creole
Courses in beginning and intermediate Haitian Creole language and culture are offered at UF during the academic year. For summer study of Haitian Creole, students should consider enrolling in the Haitian Summer Institute sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Center of Florida International University in Miami. US graduate students with interest in studying Haitian Creole during the academic year or the summer may apply for a FLAS Fellowship (link to our financial support page). Benjamin Hebblewaithe is Assistant Professor of Haitian Creole.
Aymara
The Aymara on the Internet project, funded by a 3-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education Title VI program, has three objectives: to deliver a free, online, self-guided Aymara language learning program; to provide an online learning module and dissemination tool that can be used in anthropology, language and linguistics classes to introduce Aymara language and culture; and to support the online learning program with a state of the art linguistic research database designed to re-purpose the content for different audiences.
Aymara is a less commonly taught indigenous language of the Andes of Bolivia and Peru. It is presently taught outside the Andean region by the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Chicago on a sporadic basis. Aymara on the Internet is derived from forty years of linguistic work by Dr. M.J. Hardman, the world’s foremost Aymara linguist, and represents the equivalent of a four-semester, university level language-learning track. Users are able to access cultural notes, language exercises, and self-administered tests for free. The learning module and learning object database are useful tools for both teaching and research. A unique feature of this project is its tri-lingual emphasis: the program is delivered in English, Spanish and Aymara, permitting users with no English proficiency to access the material directly.
The target audiences for the program are professional linguists interested in Andean languages, university students of linguistics and indigenous languages of the Andes region, civil servants in government agencies, field workers, the approximately 3 million speakers of Aymara and related languages in Peru, Bolivia and Chile, and third-generation descendents who wish to recover the lost language of their ancestors. This project will benefit academic programs and students of linguistics and anthropology in universities around the world without resident Aymara expertise by providing ready-made materials, available in both online and CD-Rom format.
Garifuna
The UF Center for Latin American Studies is offering a new FLAS- approved Intensive Garifuna Summer Institute, the first available in the United States. The Institute offers a unique opportunity to acquire proficiency in Garifuna, an endangered Afro-Indigenous and Caribbean language. This six-week intensive immersion course in language and culture will familiarize students with modern Garifuna based on the materials developed by the instructor as well as texts and materials used in bilingual education programs in Honduras and Belize. Students are expected to achieve proficiency 1.5 on the ILR scale and 2 on the ACTFL scale by the end of the program. The instructor is a Garifuna heritage speaker who has worked in Honuras for the Ministry of Education on bilingual education policy. The program consists of two courses, Beginning Garifuna and Garifuna Culture. Eligible students may apply for FLAS fellowships
Other Latin American Languages
The Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs maintains a comprehensive list of summer programs in less-commonly taught and indigenous Latin American languages offered by universities throughout the United States.