ASU hosts Fulbright Tatar language teacher

One of the five international Fulbright scholars ASU is hosting this academic year is foreign language teaching assistant Aygul Fatykhova from Kazan, Tatarstan, a sovereign area of Russia. With Tatar being the other, lesser-known official language of Russia, her language course offers a unique opportunity for the university and for Fatykhova, as ASU is the only institution in higher education to offer Tatar language instruction on a regular, annual basis.

“We are doubly fortunate to have her,” says Ariann Stern-Gottschalk of the Critical Languages Institute. “She is a wonderfully talented, creative teacher with great enthusiasm for Tatar language and culture, but also on a programmatic level in building our instructional capacity for Tatar language training.”

In addition to teaching beginning and intermediate Tatar language courses for the 2006-2007 academic year, Fatykhova led a well-attended lecture during International Education Week on the language and culture of Tatarstan. Her next lecture, “Teaching Tatar in Tatarstan: The Problem of National Language Policy in the Russian Federation,” will take place during the spring semester.

The Fulbright Scholar program was established in 1946 by the U.S. Department of State to build mutual understanding between the American people and those of other countries.