Date: August 10, 2004
Contact: Michael Hopkins
Phone: (708) 534-7090
Fax: (708) 534-8399
Email: m-hopkins@govst.edu
For Immediate Release
University Park, August 10, 2004 – Governors State University’s College of Arts and Sciences will host six Fulbright Language Teaching Assistants during the university’s fall trimester.
The teaching assistants, known as FLTA’s, come to GSU from their home countries to teach language and culture courses at the university.
“This is a program we’re particularly proud to have in the college,” said Dr. Roger K. Oden, dean for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Oden said his college has worked collaboratively with the Fulbright Association and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Language and Cultural Affairs for a number of years to bring the FLTA’s to the GSU campus.
>“It’s a mutually rewarding relationship, that benefits our students all around,” Oden explained. “Our FLTA’s teach courses in culture and language, and who better to teach than natives of those cultures? The interaction, questioning, and overall dynamic that the FLTA’s foster in the classroom build on the interdisciplinary and international themes the college focuses on in its curriculum.”
Oden said the interaction, in turn, allows the FLTA’s to refine their teaching skills and extend their knowledge of the cultures and customs of the United States. For the fall trimester, which begins September 2, the college will add a German Language and Culture course sequence to its curriculum. It will also continue existing sequences in Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese, which the college began offering in 1994.
In addition to the for credit sequences, the college will make introductory- and advanced-level, non-credit Foreign Language and Culture courses available in Arabic, Swahili, Turkish, Hausa and Bahasa Indonesia. The non-credit course will be offered evenings and weekends.
“This is a unique opportunity for people to learn first hand from natives of diverse cultures,” Oden said. “It’s an outstanding opportunity for GSU students, but we want the community to be able to take advantage of it as well. So we’re making the courses widely accessible through the combination of credit and non-credit courses.”
All credit and non-credit courses will start in the fall. Non-credit courses will be offered evenings and weekends. Non-credit registration is $95.
Credit courses require application to the university. Regular tuitions apply.
For more information or to register for the non-credit courses, contact the College of Arts and Sciences at 708-534-4101. To apply to the university, contact the Office of Admission at 708-534-4490. Current students can register for credit courses through online or touchtone registration.
