The program will be taught by professors from MSU and other participating universities. MSU students who participate can earn credits toward fulfilling a language requirement.

Chekaraou said the program is effective because it immerses students in the languages.

“We have intensive classes of minimum four hours a day,” Chekaraou said. “On top of that, we create a certain situation whereby students will feel like they are in Africa.”

The Summer Cooperative African Language Institute is held at 12 different universities that are part of the Title VI National Resource Centers for African Language and Area Studies.

The program will be held at MSU this summer and will return next summer. The program stays at a university for two summers and receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education.

Yacob Fisseha, assistant director for the MSU African Studies Center, said although MSU offers three African languages during the academic session — Swahili, Hausa and Arabic — this program gives students the opportunity to learn any one of a variety of languages taught by instructors from different universities.

“Universities send their own faculty, a few send money and the rest are hired from the general available instructors,” he said.

MSU will provide five or six instructors as well as graduate students with training or who are native speakers, Fisseha said.

MSU last held the program in 2002 and it rotates among participating universities. Chekaraou said it is beneficial for MSU to host the program.

“(We) wanted (the program) to come back to MSU because that will help us promote our own program of African languages throughout the year,” Chekaraou said.

“That’s why we lobbied and the other Title VI programs actually accepted.”

James Pritchett, director of the African Studies Center, said there is a reason the federal government funds language education.

“Since as far back as the late 1950s, early 1960s, the U.S. government has realized for a host of reasons it needs really high-level expertise in language and culture,” he said. “What (the federal government has) done to insure that it has (language education), is it funds a network of area studies centers — a whole network of centers and universities all across this country that get funded through this Title VI program.”

Of the approximately 130 language centers part of Title VI, maybe 10 focus in African languages, Pritchett said.

Although the government values an educated citizenry, Chekaraou said those who participate in the program also have personal ambitions, such as doing research abroad or continuing education.

“I think the primary goal is people are interested in knowing other cultures,” he said.

Chekaraou said any students, undergraduate or graduate, and community members interested in the program should fill out an application available on the program’s Web site, Africa.msu.edu/Scali. Chekaraou said applicants can be placed on a waiting list of those looking to participate.