The University of Iowa has received a grant of nearly $100,000 to offer a professional training program for teachers of Russian as a foreign language in the United States.

The program is supported by STARTALK, a National Security Language Initiative launched by the White House in 2006 to promote the teaching and learning of strategically important world languages that are not widely taught in the U.S.

Participants will learn about the standards of language teaching and testing in the U.S. and in Russia; various technological tools for language teaching; and distance learning formats of course delivery.

The seven-week program begins in August 2012 and will be taught by Irina Kostina, lecturer of Russian, and Anna Kolesnikova, visiting assistant professor, in the Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures within the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Marina Kostina, online professor at Kendall College in Chicago, will also serve as an instructor. All three are co-authors of the grant and have experience integrating the requirements of the National Standards for Foreign Language Education in the U.S. and the Test of Russian as Foreign Language in Russia.

For more information, contact Irina Kostina at irina-kostina@uiowa.edu.