UWG
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Contact: University Communications & Marketing
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
ucm@westga.edu
Online foreign languages courses offered
February 22, 2005
CARROLLTON, GA - Do you want to learn another language, but you just can’t fit another class into your schedule? What if the course was offered online? Beginning in the fall, the University System of Georgia (USG) will be offering interactive, multi-media courses in Japanese, Chinese and Russian via the Internet.
Any student enrolled at the University of West Georgia or another USG college that does not offer the desired language will be able to register for one of the courses. The deadline for registration is March 1 and each course is limited to 20 students, but if space permits, even non-students interested in these courses may register.
This distance learning initiative is being offered by the USG’s Office of International Education by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s National Security Education Program (NSEP).
“We developed these courses to expose students to less commonly taught foreign languages,” said Dr. Richard C. Sutton, USG senior advisor for Academic Affairs and director of the Office of International Education.
Each language involves a four-semester sequence of courses. Scholarship opportunities for a study-abroad experience are available to students who complete the first year of study. Faculty members from Georgia Tech will teach the Japanese and Chinese (Mandarin) courses, while Georgia State University faculty members will teach the Russian courses.
The Department of Foreign Languages at UWG currently offers classes in French, Spanish and German, which was added as a major field of study in 2003. Beyond teaching the grammatical aspects of a language, many of the present courses focus on other aspects of foreign languages, such as German History Through Film, an XIDS course that will be offered this summer, and Modern Spanish Novel, which will be offered in the fall. The department also offers a self-taught course in Japanese, which is part of the National Association for Self-Instructional Programs (NASILP).
For more information about the online courses, visit the University System’s website at http://www.usg.edu/oie or contact the UWG Foreign Language Department at 678-839-6515.
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