This is the WordPress homepage (2018-) for the Self-Directed Language Acquisition Program at the University of Richmond. Established in the spring of 2009, the SDLAP provided new opportunities for students to pursue less-commonly-taught languages. Students who have completed the COM2 requirement are eligible to enroll in the SDLAP after an introductory consultation with Dr. Michael Marsh-Soloway. The SDLAP is a five-course program consisting of an introductory half-credit weekly seminar, SDLC 105, along with concurrent or successive full credit units of self-directed study working with a network of qualified language partners in SDLC 110, 111, 112, 113.

Languages routinely offered through the SDLAP include Korean, Persian (Farsi/Dari), modern Hebrew, and Turkish. Aside from these regular offerings, the SDLAP has also supported students learning Amharic, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Czech, Dutch, Greek, Hindi, Kannada, Portuguese, Quechua, Sanskrit, Swedish, and Wolof. In the nine years since its inception, the SDLAP has assisted and advised hundreds of UR students in their endeavors to acquire new linguistic skills, international knowledge, and deeper cultural sensitivities. Students preparing for or returning from study or service abroad may also use the SDLAP to begin or continue the study of a language not included in regular course offerings.

This WordPress blog is intended to provide information to students in the SDLAP program, who use the SDLAP Ning to create learning journals and electronic portfolios. Documentation from this blog may copied to the Ning, and students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the variety of general and UR-specific language resources available to support the creation of individualized learning plans, and engage their self-directed courses of study through a multi-faceted approach stressing the activation of real-world skills and communicative sensibilities, and fulfill measurable and realistic goals in the way of acquiring increased linguistic proficiency.

Participants in the Self-Directed Language Acquisition Program:

  • learn to set and fulfill their own language-learning goals;
  • explore the culture(s) in which their language is spoken;
  • develop competence in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.