Courses

The United States can seem like a very confusing place to international students and visitors. If Americans are supposed to be oriented to progress and the future, why do they seem obsessed with the Wild West? How can a country that is on the cutting edge of science and technology continue to have controversies about teaching the Theory of Evolution in its public schools? Why do so many Americans seem to love their country, but hate its government? If the United States claims to be committed to equal opportunity for all, why are race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality still “hot-button” issues in the US?

This course is designed to help international students sort out these and similar cultural paradoxes by exploring three of the foundations of the American Experience and how they remain relevant to life in the US in the 21st Century: America’s Enlightenment Heritage, its Religious Heritage, and its Frontier Heritage. We will first lay a solid foundation for understanding these three central facets of the American experience, and then examine how they have influenced America’s past and continue to influence the United States today. This course will help you to understand how US Americans tend to think and what they value. We will touch on several specific facets of life in the US, including politics and government, racial and ethnic diversity, business and economy, education, entertainment and leisure time, religion, and gender and sexuality.

The course also features Keys to Academic Success Workshops during the first week. These workshops are designed to explain clearly what US professors expect of their students and what international students need to know in order to succeed at an American university. The workshops include practical assignments on which students will receive important feedback and helpful suggestions for improvement.

We will take time to explore the beautiful Indiana University campus so that you can feel at home here before the Fall semester begins, and we plan a field trip to a museum of Native American art and culture in Indianapolis. You will also have opportunities to learn about the experience of growing up in the US from students in other IFS courses. 

This course is eligible for honors credit through Hutton Honors College. 

Catalog Information: SLST-T 135  AMERICAN EXPER INTL STUDENTS

Instructor:

Rex A. Sprouse

Email:

rsprouse@indiana.edu

Department:

Second Language Studies

Rex A. Sprouse is Professor of Second Language Studies, a department that he co-founded in 2006. A native of the State of Ohio, he had multiple opportunities to study in Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Iceland before earning his Ph.D. in Germanic linguistics from Princeton University. Professor Sprouse taught at Bucknell University, Eastern Oregon University, and Harvard University before coming to Indiana University in 1994. His primary research interests are investigating how adults acquire new languages and how languages change over time. For eleven years, he was the Resident Director of Indiana University’s summer study program in Graz, Austria. Professor Sprouse’s current teaching includes courses on the structure, history, and acquisition of a range of languages, as well as his course on the cultural foundations of the United States, of which the 2024 IFS course will be the twentieth iteration. 

This class is not approved for the IU Bloomington General Education Program.