Alternate Language Study Option (ALSO) Program

Daniel Gross, Director

The Alternate Language Study Option Program is designed for those self-motivated and self-disciplined students who want to prepare for off-campus study and/or want to enrich their major and liberal arts education.

The program provides a four-semester, two-year sequence of beginning-level self-instructional study in a variety of languages. The specific languages offered depend on student interest (a minimum of three students is needed to inaugurate the study of a language) and the availability of materials and native tutors.

ALSO students use standard texts and accompanying multimedia programs, and are expected to set up and adhere to a schedule of intensive daily individual study, supplemented by three practice sessions per week conducted by a native speaker of the language. The native tutor, trained and monitored by the director, leads students in exercises on assigned material, corrects them, and aids in the development of oral-aural skills. The student's progress is tested twice a semester by an outside examiner, a qualified instructor of the designated language in an established university-level program. Final grades are assigned by the outside examiner in conjunction with the director. ALSO courses use the current grading scale without the S/D/F option.

In applying for the ALSO Program, students must state their reasons for studying the language of their choice, and they must submit a letter of recommendation from their adviser and from a member of the foreign language faculty at Grinnell. Prerequisite: second-year standing, satisfactory completion of one year of a foreign-language course or Linguistics 114 (Introduction to General Linguistics) at Grinnell, and a cumulative grade point average of 2.75.