Dr. Irina Ivliyeva, associate professor of Russian, has stepped down from teaching American Pronunciation after 15 years in the position. She will continue to provide the cultural orientation for the GTA Workshop and serve as the department’s senior assessor. Dr. Audra Merfeld-Langston, associate professor of French, will teach the course, which is now known as American Communication Skills.

This is a free class, mandated by state law, to improve the spoken and aural communication of international students who need a little extra help in order to pass the SPEAK test and/or the GTA Workshop. Langston has 17 years of teaching language as well as native proficiency in English. She has served as an assessor for the GTA Workshop for six years.

Ivliyeva, a foreign language educator for 26 years, is committed to expanding the foreign language curriculum into blended and online formats. She focuses on aligning American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) standards with online assessment methods.