A SUMMER OF VIRTUAL LANGUAGE LEARNING BY RACHEL WILLIAMS
In spring 2020, like many other students at OU and around the country, I found myself scrambling to adapt my summer plans to the spread of COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdown. I had been awarded a Critical Language Scholarship to study Arabic in Ibri, Oman, but by mid-March the program had been canceled. As a fourth-year Arabic student planning to apply to the Arabic Flagship capstone year in Morocco later in the year, I scrambled to find another summer program that would allow me to build up my language skills. My “plan B” was the Arabic Flagship’s summer program in Morocco, but that was canceled not long after CLS. Fortunately, the summer program administrators helped me to find other Flagship-approved programs that would be delivered virtually, and I landed on Indiana University’s Language Workshop. I was accepted to the two-month Arabic 5 course and a one-month Moroccan Darija course. (continued on page 12)
WWW.OU.EDU/CIS • SPRING 2021 • COMPASS: PANDEMIC EDITION
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