The Advanced Russian Language & Area Studies Program (RLASP) combines intensive Russian language instruction with a wide range of extracurricular activities, including internships and community service, regional field study excursions, meetings with conversation partners, and discussion groups with local students.
RLASP serves both graduate and undergraduate students as well as working professionals. The program provides approximately 20 hours per week of in-class instruction in Russian grammar, phonetics, conversation, and cultural studies. Program features include homestays, weekly excursions, travel to other regions outside the host city, conversation partners, and a wide range of opportunities to pursue volunteering opportunities, hobbies, and personal interests in a Russian-language context. Credit for area studies coursework is offered in such subjects as literature and history, political science, and contemporary society. All courses are taught in Russian by expert faculty with experience teaching foreign students.
All program participants are required to attend a mandatory pre-departure orientation hosted by American Councils at the start of the program. Orientation sessions address health and safety, academic culture, host-family life, culture shock, and strategies to maximize language gain. Students will also have a chance to meet and get to know their resident directors, fellow participants, and alumni during the orientation. Lodging and meals will be provided. Upon arrival in the host country, participants attend an in-country orientation.
Academic Program
RLASP maximizes linguistic and cultural immersion into Russian-speaking society. The program features approximately twenty hours per week of in-class instruction; roughly sixteen hours of which are dedicated to Russian-language study. Students are placed according to proficiency level in groups of three-to-five for language classes. Course work typically includes classes in phonetics, grammar, and conversation, as well as composition, oral comprehension, and reading. Language courses also cover topics in literature, history, politics, culture, mass media, and area studies.
Students also have the option of auditing classes at their host university in the natural sciences, humanities, and other fields.
To aid cultural integration and support academic learning, participants have the opportunity to meet with conversation partners two hours per week.
Participants receive academic credit through Bryn Mawr College, an institutional member of American Councils. Upon successful completion of the program, Bryn Mawr College issues 16 undergraduate credit hours (4.0 Pomona credits) for the fall or spring semesters.
There is no CR/NC option on this program.
Living Arrangements
Program participants live with host families. Living with a host family provides valuable cultural experience to complement the academic program. Host families expose participants to authentic, everyday life in the host country while also providing a supportive environment for students to practice their growing language skills. While staying with a host family, participants are provided with a private room, two meals per day, and keys to the apartment or house. All host families are screened, selected, and monitored by American Councils home-stay coordinators and resident directors.
Number of Students
American Councils enrolls approximately 15 - 23 students, selected from a national pool.
Host Institutions
American Councils
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU) in Almaty, Kazakhstan
Faculty Liaisons
Larissa Rudova
Anne Dwyer (on leave until June 30, 2024)
Interested in Learning More?
Complete program information, including an online application, is available on the RLASP website at www.acstudyabroad.org/rlasp.
Read what past program participants have to say about their RLASP experience on American Councils' blog website. Check out American Councils' Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for pictures of participants on-program, study abroad articles, and more!
Questions?
Contact American Councils at outbound@americancouncils.org
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