The Hindi Urdu Flagship represents a departure from traditional undergraduate language programs in a number of critical ways. In response to a widely perceived need to change the paradigm of Hindi and Urdu learning in the US, HUF has developed new pedagogical approaches, a new type of curriculum, and a new focus on the goal of producing global professionals―students whose linguistic skills will make them highly effective in a range of professional capacities.
Hindi AND Urdu
HUF is currently the only four-year language program in the US to require its students to learn both Hindi and Urdu simultaneously. Hindi and Urdu share a common grammar and basic vocabulary, but are distinct in script, higher vocabulary and cultural orientation; their sibling relationship allows us to teach the two in parallel. The Hindi Urdu Language>Read more on the Hindi Urdu language...
Moving Beyond 'Language and Literature'
The other significant new emphasis in the Flagship approach is to transcend the traditional 'Language and Literature' context of language study and to develop students' linguistic skills in disciplines and areas directly relevant to their long-term professional ambitions; thus each student is taken through four years of language training with an appropriately designed curriculum based on compatibility with his or her major, and with close attention being paid to the individual student's development.
Our students represent a variety of majors, including Business, Pre-med, Biology, Communication, Electrical Engineering, and various liberal arts fields. Such diversity represents a broad spectrum of linguistic needs that we are addressing through several new approaches, briefly outlined here:
- A high number of hours of language study (10 credit-hours in the first year and 9 credit-hours in the second year, mostly at the advanced level).
- An extended period of language immersion in India, combining language study and a professional internship related to individual students' majors.
- Extensive one-on-one tutorial attention from teaching assistants outside of the classroom.
- A focus on specific themes in language classes: for example, our second-year unit on Ecology and Environment builds students’ familiarity with a technical lexicon closely relevant to the worlds of science, development, and public administration.
- The study of Hindi and Urdu sources as a supplement to existing UT courses such as South Asian anthropology, history and politics.
- The development of innovative authentic learning and teaching materials, many being designed for self-study through such media as podcasts and web-based video.
- In collaboration with the UT South Asia Institute, we invite distinguished Hindi and Urdu writers and artists to visit UT and work with our students.
