Gained in TRANSLATION For the 800 ‘internationals’ who pass through USC’s Language Academy each year, intensive English study opens eyes, ears, mouths and minds. By Liz Segal | Photographs by Roger Snider
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otato salad, fried chicken, coleslaw and Cokes – what better way to entertain scores of “internationals” on a hot Friday afternoon in July? The students have gathered for opening day of USC’s Language Academy, an intensive English-immersion program based at the University Park campus. It is a colorful and eclectic crowd: young Asian women wearing rhinestone-studded sunglasses; heavy-accented young men in oversized shorts and Vans; brightly smiling Middle Eastern women in jeans and headscarves. They seem excited, making side plans to see Yellowstone and New York City. “This is America!” says one beaming Saudi woman when asked if she will learn to drive here. They have come to learn English, American style. Beginners might land in a level one reading and writing class, where they are drilled on the basics. A week into the summer program finds some of them producing compound sentences at the direction of Language Academy instructor Priscilla Caraveo: “I have to do my homework, but I don’t have time!” volunteers one playful student to a chorus of laughter from her classmates. Advanced students might land in level six (the penultimate level), where expectations are much higher. A visit to instructor Steve MacIsaac’s class finds some international students, a week into the program, analyzing an article from The Nation. “We’re stair-stepping them to learn to write an M.A.- or Ph.D.-level paper, to familiarize them with the American style of thinking, writing, research and academic synthesis,”
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U S C T R O J A N F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E winter 2011