The University of Notre Dame will host the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistantship (FLTA) orientation for the coming academic year, bringing some 55 foreign language teachers from 20 countries to campus Aug. 5 to 8 (Sunday to Wednesday) for a series of workshops designed to enhance their teaching in the United States.
Some 20 faculty members from Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters and Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning will lead sessions focusing on the latest and best practices in language teaching, preparing syllabi, curricular development, American academic culture, student life, effective time management, and designing and grading student papers. The program also will provide lectures, tours, activities and social events focused on American culture, politics and sports.
On completion, the language teachers will travel to their host institutions across the United States for the academic year 2007-08 where they will teach undergraduate foreign languages, including Bengali, Chinese, German, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Irish, Kiswahili, Mongolian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Uzbek, Wolof and Persian.
“Hosting this event not only places Notre Dame at the center of Fulbright’s foreign language program, but it underlines our leadership and also accentuates our expertise and reputation as foreign language teachers,” said project organizer Brian Conchubhair, assistant professor in the Department of Irish Language and Literature and a fellow in Notre Dame’s Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies. “Notre Dame willserve as the gateway to their American experience and will shape how they perceive the United States.”
The FLTA participants come from Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, Spain, Tanzania, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
The orientation is sponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute and Kaneb Center, along with the Fulbright Commission, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State and Institute for International Education.
Contact: Brian Conchubhair, 574-631-0499, boconch1@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on July 27, 2007.