Swahili (SWAHL)

SWAHL 1100 - Elementary Swahili I (4 Credits)  
Elementary Swahili provides a foundation in listening, speaking, reading, and writing the basic grammatical structures and vocabulary. Swahili (Kiswahili) is spoken in the East and Central parts of Africa. It is an official and national language in Tanzania, and in Kenya. During a first semester course, students engage in short conversation and communicative tasks, such as, greetings, introduction, daily routines, shopping, etc. Students learn to comprehend short and simple utterances about topics pertaining to basic personal information and immediate setting in day to day life. A Swahili second semester increases your oral fluency, grammar, vocabulary, writing, reading, and listening skills. All listening exercises will aim at preparing students to speak. Be ready to actively participate in conversations, to express yourself orally, and write stories/compositions. Literature and Cultural materials are incorporated into the course, along with audio, video, and web-based materials.
Distribution Requirements: (FL-AG), (OCL-IL)  
Exploratory Studies: (AFLANG)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022  
SWAHL 1101 - Elementary Swahili II (4 Credits)  
Elementary Swahili provides a foundation in listening, speaking, reading, and writing the basic grammatical structures and vocabulary. Swahili (Kiswahili) is spoken in the East and Central parts of Africa. It is an official and national language in Tanzania, and in Kenya. During a first semester course, students engage in short conversation and communicative tasks, such as, greetings, introduction, daily routines, shopping, etc. Students learn to comprehend short and simple utterances about topics pertaining to basic personal information and immediate setting in day to day life. A Swahili second semester increases your oral fluency, grammar, vocabulary, writing, reading, and listening skills. All listening exercises will aim at preparing students to speak. Be ready to actively participate in conversations, to express yourself orally, and write stories/compositions. Literature and Cultural materials are incorporated into the course, along with audio, video, and web-based materials.
Prerequisites: SWAHL 1100.  
Distribution Requirements: (FL-AG), (OCL-IL)  
Exploratory Studies: (AFLANG)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
SWAHL 1108 - Elementary Swahili Jumpstart (1 Credit)  
Biomedical Engineering students who have an exchange program with Arusha Technical College (ATC) in Tanzania. The course introduces students to Swahili language and culture and equips language input to communicate with Arusha colleagues in formal and informal settings. Prior knowledge of the language is not required. Since this course is one credit, it does not fulfill the language requirement.Students will incorporate their working contexts at the beginning language proficiency level. The course aims to provide various reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities focusing on the daily interaction at work and outside. All tasks are geared to give students proficiency and competence to communicate with Swahili native speakers in Arusha, Tanzania. This course does NOT fulfill a language requirement for colleges or majors.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022  
SWAHL 1109 - Strategies for Swahili Abroad (1 Credit)  
This course introduces the Swahili language, predominantly spoken in East Africa, and its culture. The course provides basic Swahili oral communicative skills on routine social demand topics, orients students to the Swahili culture, and navigates East Africa. The course is intended for those who want to gain insight into East African cultures and /or travel to the countries.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024  
SWAHL 2101 - Intermediate Swahili I (4 Credits)  
Intermediate Swahili levels I and II in general impart speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills beyond Swahili elementary level to participate with ease and confidence in familiar topics and exchange information on unfamiliar topics. Students are assigned communicative tasks such as respond to a situation with a short text and take part in a discussion after viewing short video clips and prompts to elicit speaking and listening competence and cultural awareness responses beyond elementary level. The language and cultural scenarios practiced are designed to help students demonstrate language responses beyond familiar topics, and to feel comfortable conversing with Swahili native speakers, as well as to blend in and feel welcomed as part of the community while exploring different topics such as acquaintanceship, relationships, health, festivals, education, sports, housing, politics, commerce, travel, etc. Short stories are used to depict cultural aspects such as cultural expressions, proverbs, sayings, and riddles. Literature and cultural materials are incorporated into the course, along with audio-visual and web-based material. In this course, students have an opportunity to participate in language conversation outside the classroom and explore the opportunities for study abroad in East Africa. Swahili Elementary I and II are prerequisite for this course. By the end of this course, students should be able to reach proficiency level Intermediate High according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) www.actfl.org.
Prerequisites: SWAHL 1100 and SWAHL 1101.  
Distribution Requirements: (FL-AG), (FLOPI-AS), (OCL-IL)  
Exploratory Studies: (AFLANG)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
SWAHL 2102 - Intermediate Swahili II (3 Credits)  
Intermediate Swahili levels I and II in general impart speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills beyond Swahili elementary level to participate with ease and confidence in familiar topics and exchange information on unfamiliar topics. Students are assigned communicative tasks such as respond to a situation with a short text and take part in a discussion after viewing short video clips and prompts to elicit speaking and listening competence and cultural awareness responses beyond elementary level. The language and cultural scenarios practiced are designed to help students demonstrate language responses beyond familiar topics, and to feel comfortable conversing with Swahili native speakers, as well as to blend in and feel welcomed as part of the community while exploring different topics such as acquaintanceship, relationships, health, festivals, education, sports, housing, politics, commerce, travel, etc. Short stories are used to depict cultural aspects such as cultural expressions, proverbs, sayings, and riddles. Literature and cultural materials are incorporated into the course, along with audio-visual and web-based material. In this course, students have an opportunity to participate in language conversation outside the classroom and explore the opportunities for study abroad in East Africa. Swahili Elementary I and II are prerequisite for this course. By the end of this course, students should be able to reach proficiency level Intermediate High according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) www.actfl.org
Prerequisites: SWAHL 1100 and SWAHL 1101.  
Distribution Requirements: (FL-AG), (FLOPI-AS), (OCL-IL)  
Exploratory Studies: (AFLANG)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
SWAHL 3103 - Advanced Swahili I (3 Credits)  
Develops advanced speaking, reading, and writing skills with longer texts, films, advanced readings, and advanced oral discussion encompassing various topics. Examples of texts and films are; movies, novels, plays, poems, newspaper articles, essays, and speeches. Students will be prepared to narrate and describe events in a longer time frame. Students will also review and practice grammatical aspects and cultural expressions that pose challenges to non-native speakers when trying to comprehend native speakers. The course requires students to engage in small research projects during the course of study based on the student's areas of interest. During the course of study, students will have an opportunity to participate in language conversation outside the classroom and to engage in language conversational exchange with the students from the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Prerequisites: completed a minimum of three semesters of Kiswahili and have applied their Swahili skills in any Swahili speaking country.  
Distribution Requirements: (FLOPI-AS)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018  
SWAHL 5509 - Graduate Studies in Swahili (3-4 Credits)  
Topics vary by semester in relation to student needs.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
SWAHL 5510 - Graduate Studies in Swahili (3-4 Credits)  
Topics vary by semester in relation to student needs.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023