CALA courses foster a "whole language" classroom environment wherein students and the instructor constantly communicate with each other in real time.  Participants are exposed to grammar naturally in a communicative context rather than "taught grammar points" explicitly.  The listing below is intended to provide a general sense of the grammar and competencies treated in each part of American Sign Language (ASL), Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Tamil.

American Sign Language (ASL) Part 1

• Alphabet
• Greetings
• Colors
• Numbers 1-10
• Parts of the Body
• Everyday vocabulary (e.g., stand, sit, walk, give, take, dances, slowly, quickly, boy, girl, chair, table, thank you, you're welcome, floor, money, pen, book, apple, shirt, I win, how, what, how many)

American Sign Language (ASL) Part 2

(Reinforcement and expansion of all Part 1 competencies PLUS:)

• House and home
• Family and relationships
• Positive and negative emotional expressions
• Recounting a story using there is, wants, goes to
• Comprehension questions

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Chinese (Mandarin) Part 1

With a primacy on oral communication, the writing system of Chinese Parts 1-2 is NOT covered

• Common vocabulary
• Expressions of positve and negative emotion
• Subject pronouns
• Positive and negative forms of verbs
• Interrogative pronouns and responses to oral questions
• Introduction of adjectives
• Numbers 1-10
• Overview of numerous Chinese cultural practices

Chinese (Mandarin) Part 2

(Reinforcement and expansion of all Part 1 competencies PLUS:)

• More complex sentence structure
• Comprehension and personal questions
• Numbers 11-24

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French Part 1

• Comprehension and production of all parts of speech from various domains of high-frequency vocabulary (e.g., places, parts of the body, the family, the home, the classroom, clothing, colors, numbers 1-20, and transportation)
• Regular verbs: present tense and infinitive form
• Irregular verbs: être, avoir, vouloir, and aller
• Adjective/article agreement
• Direct/indirect object pronouns
• Basic conversational greetings
• Comprehension and personal questions
• Positive and negative emotional expressions

French Part 2

(Reinforcement and expansion of all Part 1 competencies PLUS:)

• Present and imperfect tenses for regular and irregular verbs
• Spatial and temporal prepositions
• Numbers 30-100 and beyond
• Describing the weather
• Days of the week and the date
• Months of the year and the seasons
• Telling time
• Geography of France and surrounding countries
• Describing oneself

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German Part 1

• Comprehension and production of all parts of speech from various domains of high-frequency vocabulary (e.g., places, parts of the body, the family, the home, the classroom, clothing, colors, numbers 1-20, and transportation)
• Regular verbs: present tense and infinitive form
• Irregular verbs: haben, sein, geben, and mögen
• Adjective/article agreement
• Direct/indirect object pronouns
• Basic conversational greetings
• Comprehension and personal questions
• Positive and negative emotional expressions

German Part 2

(Reinforcement and expansion of all Part 1 competencies PLUS:)

• Present and imperfect tenses for regular and irregular verbs
• Spatial and temporal prepositions
• Numbers 30-100 and beyond
• Describing the weather
• Days of the week and the date
• Months of the year and the seasons
• Telling time
• Geography of Europe
• Describing oneself

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Japanese Part 1

With a primacy on oral communication, the writing system of Japanese Parts 1-2 is NOT covered.

• Common vocabulary
• Sentence structure
• Verb types and conjugation patterns
• Positive and negative short form of verbs
• Use of “wants” in noun conjugations
• Common particles wa, ni, and to and their uses
• Noun possession
• Introduction of adjectives
• Numbers 1-10
• Overview of numerous Japanese cultural practices

Japanese Part 2

(Reinforcement and expansion of all Part 1 competencies PLUS:)

• More complex sentence structure
• Emphasis pf particles wa, ni, and to and their uses
• Introduction of de, ni, and ga and their uses
• Use and placement of “because”
• Use of “wants” in verb conjugations
• Conjugation of adjectives
• Numbers 1-999

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Spanish Part 1

• Comprehension and production of all parts of speech from various domains of high-frequency vocabulary (e.g., places, parts of the body, the family, the home, the classroom, clothing, colors, numbers 1-20, and transportation)
• Regular verbs: present tense and infinitive form
• Irregular verbs: dar, estar, gustar, haber, ir, ser, and tener
• Adjective/article agreement
• Direct/indirect object pronouns
• Basic conversational greetings
• Comprehension and personal questions
• Positive and negative emotional expressions

Spanish Part 2

(Reinforcement and expansion of all Part 1 competencies PLUS:)

• Introduction to preterite and imperfect tenses for regular and irregular verbs
• Spatial and temporal prepositions
• Numbers 30-100 and beyond
• Describing the weather
• Days of the week
• Months of the year and the seasons
• Telling time
• Geography of Central America
• Describing oneself

Spanish Part 3

(Reinforcement and expansion of all Part 1 and Part 2 competencies PLUS:)

• Full use of preterite, imperfect, and near future tenses
• Imperatives (commands)
• Adverbs of location
• Telling the date and ordering in time
• Commerce
• Irregular verbs:  saber vs. conocer
• Comparative expressions
• Describing personal routines

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Tamil Part 1

With a primacy on oral communication, the writing system Tamil Part 1 is NOT covered.

• Common vocabulary
• Expressions of positve and negative emotion
• Subject pronouns
• Positive and negative forms of verbs
• Interrogative pronouns and responses to oral questions
• Introduction of adjectives
• Numbers 1-10
• Cultural practices (e.g., music, dance, food, and poetry) of Tamil Nadu (Southern India)