Foreign Language
The Center for Language Study provides resources for students seeking a language tutor or a conversation exchange partner. For undergraduates who are experiencing academic difficulty in a specific language course at Yale, the Language Tutoring program provides free one-on-one tutoring for a limited number of sessions per term. For purposes of eligibility, "academic difficulty" is defined as currently earning or likely to earn a grade of C or below in the course. Students who need such assistance should be referred to the residential college dean, who will help the student with the simple application process to obtain a CLS tutor.
Students who are not eligible for CLS tutoring, either because they are not enrolled in language courses or because they are not at risk of earning a C or below, have access to a variety of resources offered by the Center for Language Study to all members of the Yale community. These include drop-in tutoring sessions, private tutoring arrangements, and a conversation exchange partner program.
The Center for Language Study sponsors free drop-in tutoring sessions on a weekly basis in French, Chinese, and Spanish at the Bass Library. These sessions provide an opportunity for students to improve and enhance their foreign language skills in a more informal, less structured setting.
Students can seek private tutoring arrangements through the Open Exchange system. Private tutors post information about their services on Open Exchange, and students can search the postings to find a language tutor who meets their needs. The tutors are not pre-screened, and students must make their own arrangements to pay Open Exchange tutors.
The Open Exchange system also facilitates conversation exchange partnerships. Through conversation exchange, a native or proficient speaker of one language agrees to meet with a similarly qualified speaker of another language for the mutual improvement of their listening and speaking skills in these languages. Students can search and create conversation partner postings on Open Exchange.
For more details on these programs, please consult the CLS Web site or contact Howard Barnaby, CLS Program Coordinator, 370 Temple Street, 432-8196.
