2012 UTA Startalk Program
The University of Texas at Arlington has been awarded a StarTalk grant to provide Student Chinese Programs in DFW area in 2012. This is the first time that UTA has received a StarTalk grant, one of the programs of the National Security Language Initiative announced by President Bush in 2006. StarTalk funding, administrated by the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland, aims at increasing the number of students and expertise of teachers in critical languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Hindi and Urdu.
The grant will be used to sponsor programs for 3rd - 12th grade students in DFW. The summer program offers a four-week Chinese language and culture course in June 2012 and is free for students. The goal of the program is to engage students in an exciting and culturally enriched Chinese learning experience while enabling them to gain a novice level of Mandarin Chinese. After the program ends, it is our hope that students and their parents would want to continue learning Chinese language and culture when they return to regular schools in the fall.
