Description: This course is designed to further develop students’ proficiency in Hindi language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) at an advanced level and it aims to increase students’ awareness and ability to use the Hindi language in different settings and registers. Emphasis is placed on the application of complex grammatical structures, vocabulary expansion, and cultural understanding through authentic materials and contexts. The goals of this course are to offer opportunities for students to report about current events, create narratives and arguments, express opinions and participate in debates about different issues related to Indian culture, literature, history, politics and economy. This course focuses also on developing higher proficiency through variety of texts, articles related to Indian economic, historic, social and cultural issues and short stories by Premchand, Yashpal, Kamleshwar and other writers. Online resources and selected movies will be used to address the variety of topics.
Text: Packet includes newspaper articles, short stories and several video clips; Oxford Hindi English Dictionary (paperback edition), by R.S. McGregor; The Modern English-Hindi Dictionary by I.N. Anand
Content Component: The purpose of this component is to help students acquire socio-economic and historical content as well as the appropriate ways of discussing them in various contexts.
- Social equality and the caste system
- Gender discrimination
- Jurisdiction. Village Justice System.
- Politics. Economy. Corruption.
- Reservations. Dalits and Tribal People: resources, rights and attitudes.
- Educational System.
Note: Actual course content can change to take advantage of unique learning opportunities and/or to address students’ interests and goals.
Week 1-3: Social Equality: Untouchability, Superstitions and Stereotypes.
- content — Social Problems Unit, Premchand: Class System, Abolishing the Claste System, Premchand: Dalits Unit, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSwVwv_xwSM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VAQcTH0f2s)
- language structures — use of infinitives in nominal sentences, passive forms in subjunctive use; idiomatic language and proverbs.
- task — (a) jigsaw activity; (b) group work: report, a ppt presentation about position of Dalits for the following audiences: (i) high school students, (ii) college students, (iii) NGO workers
Week 4-5: Women’s Position.
- content — 3 texts (packet: पहाड़ की स्मृति, दुःख का अधिकार and सच बोलने की भूल by Yashpal) and a video interview with Yashpal 1-8.19 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRR0mkRYwhk)
- language structures — review contingent/conditionals
- task — (a) jigsaw activity; (b) group work — viewing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHiGK0kXeA0&feature=related) participation in a mukadmaa (each students is a story character invited to justify their actions)
Week 6-8: Female Fetocide. Film Project.
- content — Female Feticide, Jalpari Movie Unit, text (Manmohan Singh speech), a movie review and a vocabulary list
- language structures — conjunctive participles
- task — (a) students watch parts of the movie and retell each part from one (assigned) character’s perspective, (b) students review each character’s actions, (c) group work students create and perform skits
Week 9-10: Educational System.
- content — Education Unit; 1 film (३ इडियट्स), film review article (packet) and a glossary
- language structures — compounds in passive form in the subjunctive
- task — group work on a Talk Show Bolo ji about needed changes in education; two format options: (a) the three characters speak with College Director, (b) one graduated student from an Indian college and one from a college in the U.S. speak with the Indian and U.S. ministers of education.
Week 11-12: Indian Politics and Economy.
- content — Politics and Economy Unit; 3 texts (packet) and two interviews with Arvind Kerjiwal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oT2FHOrrM0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rugVDRwaxkU)
- language structures — use of participles to form extended predicates
- task — (a) jigsaw activity; (b) students prepare news report about corruption cases.
Week 13-14: Court and Panchayat Systems.
- content — 1 text (ब्यान by Kamleshwar), two court room case clips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjJ2hHNAcuU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-9ermc7KTk) and a Panchayat meeting 1.10.02-1.19.45 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfliOUDkhbc)
- language structures — court nomenclature
- task — group work: write up and perform a court case and decision based on ब्यान
Grading: Percentage
- A 94-100%
- A- 90-93%
- B+ 87-89%
- B 84-86%
- B- 80-83%
- C+ 77-79%
- C 74-76%
- C- 70-73%
Grading/Assessment:
- Class Participation: 20%
- Projects: 20%
- Homework: 20%
- Midterm: 20%
- Final: 20%
The points for class participation are assigned for each day of class and any other outside class activity (required or recommended). Participation in class refers to attendance, punctuality, attentive listening and active engagement in all Hindi language activities, discussions, field trips and assignments. An absent student is responsible for contacting the instructor, the FLTA, and/or fellow students to be prepared for the assignments s/he missed and the ones scheduled for the next class.
Rules and regulations regarding academic misconduct is an act in which a student:
- seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another without authorization or citation;
- uses unauthorized materials or fabricated data in any academic exercise;
- forges or falsifies academic documents or records;
- intentionally impedes or damages the academic work of others;
- engages in conduct aimed at making false representation of a student’s academic performance;
- assists other students in any of these acts.