[Flasc-l] Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program (FLTA )

[Monks, Edward]

Dear Colleagues,

The Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program is expanding. We
expect to place approximately 100 Fulbright Fellows at colleges and
universities throughout the United States for the 2004-05 academic year.

In 2001 the Institute of International Education (IIE) was asked by the U.S.
Department of State's Office of Academic Exchange Programs to locate
institutions and place language teaching assistants at universities and
colleges as part of a strategic language initiative. As a result, IIE
expanded its Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program to include
critical languages.

For the 2003-2004 academic year, we have successfully placed 50 FLTAs in
Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, Bengali, Hausa, Hindi, Malay, Persian, Pushtu,
Swahili, Tajik, Turkish, Urdu and Uzbek. These are the critical languages
targeted at this time. We would like your institutions to consider
participation.

Fulbright FLTAs are expected to teach their language/culture for up to
20 hours per week while taking two courses per semester. They come as
J-1 students under the visa sponsorship of the Department of State. The
grant is for one academic year. 

The courses these Fellows take do not have to be for credit and do not have
to be graduate level. This is a non-degree program. It is expected they
would take courses in education, literature, history or political science. 

Selected candidates will have a minimum of a bachelors degree (many will
have their masters) and all will have experience teaching. It is expected
they would teach beginning level or conversation courses, serve as resource
persons in conversation groups, cultural representatives, attendants in
language laboratories, coordinators of extracurricular activities, or
supervisors of clubs and language houses. Each institution is free to assign
duties that will best meet the needs of the particular school's unique
circumstances.

Fulbright will pay for travel, health insurance and monthly maintenance. We
request that the institutions where FLTAs are placed cost share by providing
a tuition waiver for the required two courses per semester.

I would appreciate if you could bring the existence of this program to the
attention of your administration and strongly encourage you to apply for
this
opportunity.

The easy to complete STRATEGIC LANGUAGE APPLICATION is available at
www.iie.org/flta

After completing the required fields, simply click the submit
button to send the request to IIE. Submissions must be made by February 13,
2004 for the program beginning in the Fall of 2004.

Dossiers of selected candidates in the language requested will be
submitted for review in late February. At that time you can evaluate several
dossiers to determine which FLTA would be a good fit for your
school and submit the ranking to IIE. 

We aim to have the process complete by late March.

I would be happy to provide additional information. General information on
the program is available on our website at www.iie.org. The FLTA Program can
be accessed by typing FLTA in the Program Search. 

I appreciate any help you can provide in spreading the word about this
valuable component of the Fulbright Teaching Assistant Program.

Sincerely,

Edward Monks
Program Officer
Institute of International Education
809 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017

Tel: 212-984-5494
Fax: 212-984-5484
E-mail: emonks@iie.org
Click www.iie.org/impact to see IIE's impact around the world.