About NYU's STARTALK Program
This teacher training program in Hindi and Urdu is supported by a STARTALK grant from the National Foreign Language Center. It is part of a larger, ongoing U.S. government initiative to support increased training and education in “critical languages.” The program’s curriculum was developed collaboratively by NYU-SCPS’s Foreign Languages, Translation, and Interpretation department, the NYU College of Arts and Science’s Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
This intensive, ten-day residential workshop is designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of current and prospective school, community, and college teachers of Hindi and Urdu. Participants learn the most-up-to-date, standard-based teaching methodologies and are required to develop, observe, and critique classroom procedures, strategies, and teaching techniques. The program includes a cultural component in which participants learn how to use the resources available in the community environment. Classrooms are equipped with audio-visual equipment and classes are held on the NYU campus, located in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood.
The program is based on a New York State-approved course, part of the regular curriculum of the master’s program in Foreign Language Teaching at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The workshop provides 30 contact hours of classroom instruction and 20 contact hours of hands-on and field work, which is equivalent to a one-semester course.