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CLAC is designed to enrich coursework by encouraging students to study texts and materials in languages other than English, which they typically can鈥檛 do in standard content courses due to unavoidable limitations in these settings. The program provides students with opportunities to听explore Asian language interests outside of the language classroom and across a wide-ranging curriculum in humanities, social and environmental sciences, or professional听fields such as听engineering or business. CLAC allows students to integrate Asian language skills into content study in their field of interest, allowing them to enrich their studies of both. As defined by the nationwide CLAC Consortium: "CLAC supports translingual and transcultural competence as a reality for all students, not听simply for those who major in a foreign language or participate in immersive study abroad听programs. CLAC engages languages and intercultural perspectives to听achieve a better and听more nuanced understanding of content. It focuses less on bringing disciplinary content or听culture into the language classroom than on assimilating languages and cultures into听instruction and research across a wide range of听disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts.鈥�
See a March 2019 story from the Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine about our CLAC program听and听our听CLAC Brochure听here.
CAS received funding from the College of Arts & Sciences to launch a CLAC pilot project over the 2017-18 academic year. Since then, we have worked with faculty members to develop one-credit CLAC courses taught in conjunction with the following existing courses:
2023-2024
- Ancient Chinese Philosophy and Culture in Internet Sources and Popular Comics (CHIN 3321), Dr. Matthias Richter, Chinese
2022-2023
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Love, Death, and Desire: Classical Japanese Literature in Translation (JPNS 3811), Dr.听Marjorie Burge, Japanese
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Chinese Media and the Environment (CHIN 3372), Dr. Evelyn Shih, Chinese
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Women and the Supernatural in Chinese Literature (CHIN 3361), Dr. Katherine Alexander, Chinese
2021-2022
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Love, Death, and Desire: Classical Japanese Literature in Translation (JPNS 3811), Dr. Marjorie Burge, Japanese听
2019-2020
- Screening India: A History of Bollywood Cinema (HIND 3441), Dr. Rahul Parson, Hindi/Urdu听
- The Arabic Novel (ARAB 3330), Dr. Levi Thompson, Arabic听
- Devotional Literature in South Asia (HIND 3851), Dr. Rahul Parson, Hindi/Urdu听
2018-2019
- The Power of the Word: Subversive and Censored 20th-Century Indian and Pakistani Literature (HIND 3811), Dr. Rahul Parson,听Hindi/Urdu
- Modern Korean Literature in English Translation (KREN 3841),听Dr. Jae Won Chung,听Korean
2017-2018
- Introduction to Islam (RLST 2202), Dr. Aun Hasan听Ali,听Arabic
- Chinese Literature and Popular Culture in Modern China (CHIN 3341), Dr. Andrew Stuckey, Chinese
- Writing Lives: Diaries, Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Letters as Historical Sources in Japan and Japanese America, 1860-1950 (HIST 3718),听Dr. Marcia Yonemoto, Japanese
CLAC Co-Seminar Course Development听Grants听will offer a $1000 stipend for the development of a supplemental one-credit undergraduate co-seminar drawing students and content from an existing disciplinary course in any department. Faculty will be responsible for teaching this co-seminar using primary Asian language sources to enhance the content of the main course. CLAC co-seminars will be listed as ASIA 4001 (Arts & Humanities) or ASIA 4002 (Social Sciences).
Recipients who receive the summer stipend should offer the new course in AY 2024-25. All recipients will receive training and support through the CAS CLAC program and CLAC Consortium members. CLAC courses should utilize primary language and culture sources, including historical or contemporary materials and mass media.
Find application information here
CAS is pleased to announce that our own Executive Director, Danielle Rocheleau Salaz, is a contributor to听, which was published by Routledge on November 18, 2022.
The 2017-18 grant also allowed us to bring CLAC Consortium officers Suronda Gonzalez (CLAC Chair) and JY Zhou (CLAC Secretary/Treasurer) to campus to give public lectures and hold faculty training workshops regarding CLAC:
Video of CLAC: An Effective Approach to Globalizing the Curriculum by听Dr. JY Zhou;听presented at the 精品SM在线影片 on September 28, 2017.
Video of听Engaging International Students through CLAC by听Dr. Suronda Gonzalez;听presented at the 精品SM在线影片 on April 10, 2018.
We also hosted听Expanding Inclusive Excellence and Intercultural Competency: Content Instruction through a Multicultural and Bilingual Lens听on February 16, 2021. Click the link to view the presentations and discussion from the event, where faculty members who have added听CLAC to their course offerings听shared their experiences and talked about the benefits and opportunities that CLAC has to offer.听
An information session 听was recorded on听Monday, February 13, 2023听at 11:30am.
We encourage faculty members with an interest in CLAC to听contact听CAS Executive Director Danielle Rocheleau Salaz听to discuss options for getting involved. You can also take a look at our Course Development Checklist听and Resources to start thinking about how to CLAC your class.
Faculty Testimonials:
"Reading in Hindi closely gives [the CLAC students] a closeness to the text that is unique. I want to say that there's an investment in the text that is different because they're invested in how the text now gets interpreted. They almost become "politicized" by the translation. They are interested in how the information gets processed between languages.听The confidence the [CLAC] students gained has also really empowered them in the parent class. It has changed the way they are reading in the main course 鈥μ齀 actually think the students in the parent course are envious of the听CLAC听students." Dr. Rahul Bjorn Parson, Assistant Professor of Hindi Studies, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies,听University of California, Berkeley (left CU in 2020)
"The CLAC focus has been on developing the students鈥� Japanese reading skills. They鈥檙e translating letters from the Japanese battle front, and I want them to bring what they鈥檝e seen and learned to the main course. Because the CLAC students have done the extra work, they鈥檙e more engaged in the main class. They鈥檙e already good students, but they鈥檙e more tuned to sources and the nuances that are in them. They鈥檙e improving at reading and questioning the details of a translation. They鈥檙e also learning about the experience of translating, which is new to a lot of people." Dr.听Marcia Yonemoto, Professor of History
鈥淚 was interested in the CLAC class because over the past few years as more and more students in China have been enrolling in my English-language classes, I鈥檝e seen a need to have a space where they could use their own language in ways that they would understand would benefit the overall educational process.鈥澨�Dr. Andrew Stuckey, Assistant Professor, Asian Languages and Civilizations (has since left CU)
Student Testimonials:
鈥淚 learned a lot about Arabic cultures worldwide. I particularly loved discussing current events and by consequence gaining a better understanding of Arab culture.鈥�
鈥淚t was the first opportunity I have had to use [my native] Chinese in Colorado.鈥�
鈥淭he CLAC course increased my confidence with Japanese and inspired me to seek out other materials in the language.鈥�
For more information听about CLAC:
- , edited by听Dan Soneson and Caleb Zilmer and published by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota, 2018.