Background on the language

Telugu is part of the Dravidian language family (belonging to Central Dravidian branch), spoken primarily in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the second largest Indian language after Hindi with over 75 million native speakers, including those in areas of the neighboring states of Orissa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It is also widely spoken in countries of the Indian diaspora including Bahrain, Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE and the United States (www.ethnologue.com). It is considered a very expressive and evocative language, but with a simple grammar. Telugu was used for the composition of lyrics of Tyagaraja in Karnatic music (one of the two major schools of traditional music of India), because of its musical vowel sounds at the ends of words. For this reason, Telugu was known as "Italian of the East" to 19th century Europeans. Beyond their music, Telugu-speaking peoples have a rich cultural heritage of dance, literature, folk arts, cuisine, handicrafts and handlooms. There are different local and regional spoken dialect variations within Andhra Pradesh itself, as well as a distinct high-literary style of Telugu language, which has been used for a vast corpus of poetry, secular and religious epics, novels, and literature in all genres for nearly a thousand years. In modern times, the Dravidian languages spoken throughout south India (including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam) have continued to evolve with changing political, social and economic conditions. (http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article-9071613)

The flowing Kannada-Telugu script is based on 6th century inscriptions of the Chalukyan Dynasty. The Telugu script is very similar to that of its closet cousin, Kannada. The poet Nannaya's 11th century translation of the Sanskrit Mahabharata into Telugu is considered the beginning of Telugu literature.

Course Descriptions

Course Title: Intermediate Telugu Language SAST 429
Instructor: Dr. Aruna Pulipaka Magier

Rationale/Statement of purpose:
This course is designed to expand the students' written and oral proficiency in Telugu in order to allow them to function adequately in a Telugu-speaking environment, to immerse themselves in the rich Andhra culture, and to accomplish a more advanced competency in an interesting foreign language. This course is also aimed at students planning to conduct scholarly research in Telugu history, literature or society, or humanities or social science fieldwork in Telugu speaking areas.

Eligibility:
Students who have taken Elementary Telugu Language at Penn or elsewhere, or who have acquired a basic familiarity to spoken and/or written Telugu in other ways (such as exposure to the language through family background or living in Andhra Pradesh) are eligible for this course.

Objectives:
The Intermediate course is designed to reinforce and expand the basic language skills that were learnt in the Elementary level. Beyond enhancing the student's comfort level with the basic structures of the Telugu language, the course is aimed at developing actual communication skills at a more advanced level. Specifically, this course will enable students to:

*	Efficiently use language in different socio-cultural contexts;
*	Successfully carry out most types of uncomplicated communicative tasks and social situations;
*	Participate comfortably in spoken conversations with each other and as a group, initiate new themes and present and discuss one's own ideas;
*	Read basic texts of description and narration, and be able to extract the main concepts and information from them;
*	Write short, simple original compositions on personal experiences, social situations, etc.;
*	Effectively use Telugu-English and Telugu-Telugu dictionaries

Instruction Method:
There will be more advanced exercises for spoken and written language practice in class and in the language lab, including conversation-based lessons, topical readings, and grammar lessons tied to them. In addition, online textual, audio and video resources will be integrated into the classwork. Students improve their aural competency, and expand their understanding of Telugu culture, by interviewing class guests and watching Telugu movies. In addition to texts designed for the course, readings include some simple folk tales, modern short stories, and structured work with popular media and magazines. Assignments include film reviews and oral presentations.