Date: September 28, 2005
Contact: Eric Matanyi
Phone: (708) 534-4044
Fax: (708) 534-8399
Email: e-matanyi@govst.edu
For Immediate Release
University Park, October 3, 2005 – 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. Sandra Mayfield, interim dean for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Mayfield said her 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,” Mayfield 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.”
The college will make introductory and advanced-level, non-credit foreign language and culture courses available in Arabic, German, Russian, Yoruba, Swahili, and Turkish. The non-credit courses will be offered ion Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings.
“This is a unique opportunity for people to learn first hand from natives of diverse cultures,” Mayfield 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.”
For more information or to register for the courses, contact the College of Arts and Sciences at 708-534-4101.
