For almost 20 years, the Center for Language Studies has supplied BYU and the foreign language community with the tools to achieve their language acquisition goals.
PROVO, Utah (December 10, 2019)—At the end of this calendar year, the Center for Language Studies (CLS) celebrates another twelve months of expansion and service. This year, the CLS has done its best to offer new, meaningful opportunities to its community.
The CLS houses the university’s foreign languages that don’t fall under the five main language departments in the College of Humanities. In addition to the 45 less-common foreign languages already taught by the CLS, Tahitian and Hiligaynon will be taught for the first time in Winter 2020. The demand for Filipino languages is so high that an extra section of Hiligaynon and Tagalog have been added to Winter 2020’s schedule and a Tagalog house for men is scheduled to be available in Fall 2020 through the Foreign Language Student Residence (FLSR)
Language certificates, official certification of foreign language proficiency available in 18 different languages, are also available to students through the CLS. More than 3,000 students have received language certificates in the last 9 years. This year, the CLS has added Dutch, Indonesian, and Thai to the growing list of certifiable languages.
In 2019, in collaboration with the Kennedy Center and the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, the CLS co-hosted a few events in honor of the International Year of the Indigenous Language. Additionally, the CLS supports the Kennedy Center’s National Resource Center grants for Asian Studies and for Latin American Studies (from the U.S. Department of Education) for ten languages: Cebuano, Guarani, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Hmong, Indonesian, K’iche, Thai, and Vietnamese.
The CLS provides foreign language assessments for all senior seminar classes, Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) students, study abroad participants, and international internships. Further, it sponsors professional development opportunities for faculty and graduate students such as the Language Acquisition Research Colloquium (LARC) and American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) workshops.
Otherwise, CLS continues to impact the university and community through its involvement in BYU’s annual language choir concert, BYU’s Second Language Teaching (SLAT) graduate program, and innovative foreign language opportunities.
No matter how quickly it grows, the CLS is ever persistent in finding new ways to serve the foreign language community.
Learn more at cls.byu.edu.
—Tori Hamilton (Editing & Publishing, ‘20)
