Training Assistants to Teach

A wide variety of training efforts are required to prepare international teaching assistants for instructional duties in American and Canadian universities. For educators who do not work in this area, the focus of these efforts may be unfamiliar. For educators who do work in this area, the focus of these efforts may be changing, as student populations themselves change.

Who are international teaching assistants (ITAs)? They are international graduate students studying in the United States and Canada who are appointed within their respective universities as teaching assistants (TAs) as part of their graduate and/or support program. Their classes usually contain a majority of undergraduate students who are native speakers of English. An ITA need not be a U.S. citizen and/or a native English language speaker. An example of an ITA would be a student from the Peopleıs Republic of China who is pursuing a doctorate in Biology, and at the same time is teaching quiz or recitation sections as a part of a large introductory course. Other teaching assistant responsibilities could include teaching oneıs own course, leading labs, lecturing, grading student work and holding office hours. According to Darlene Panvini, Coordinator for the International Teaching Assistants Program at the Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, ITAs may face difficulty with areas that include:

  • Language: especially idiomatic and common usage of the language. ³I often find that it is not so much the Œcorrectı pronunciation or grammar that poses difficulty, but that things like knowing how to answer studentıs questions in ways that students can understand and/or not sounding like a Œtalking textbookı are more challenging [for the ITAs,]² said Panvini.

  • Communication: separated from language so as to include nonverbal communication, immediacy behaviors, and interpersonal and intercultural communication skills. ³Just because ITAs are living an intercultural experience doesnıt mean theyıve developed the skills to successfully communicate in the experience,² Panvini said.

  • Teaching Pedagogy: Panvini points out that issues ³stem from inexperience as a teacher as well as cultural differences that occur in the classroom and other teaching situations. I should probably add here that what constitutes Œteachingı varies from institution to institution. Here at Vanderbilt, we consider teaching to be any duties that involve contact with students or studentsı work. At the TESOL convention, I learned that others might only define teaching as giving lectures, thus excluding duties like holding office hours or teaching labs.²

  • Teaching Experience: Many TAs, both native speakers and internationals, have had very little or no teaching experience, and need assistance in developing a repertoire of teaching techniques and strategies.

    Panvini said: ³Unlike TAs from the U.S., however, many ITAs do not know what it means to conduct a review session or have never witnessed office hours and so do not know what to do during these teaching moments. Also, many ITAs struggle with knowing at what level to Œpitchı the material they are teaching because they are unfamiliar with the U.S. education system.²

    ³Another pedagogical issue is knowing what students expect from their teachers _ ITAs are often clueless here,² added Panvini. ³So the pedagogical issues not only concern basic teaching techniques but include the Œculture of the classroomı-type factors.²

    l Culture: ³Itıs really hard to walk into a teaching situation and be a successful TA when youıre still trying to figure out where to live, how to get food, how to arrange for health care, and so on in a culture that you donıt understand,² said Panvini. ³On top of all this, ITAs experience the various stages of cultural adjustment in different ways so thatıs an added layer that complicates how well they encounter and work in the intercultural experience they are living,² she added. ³Throw in the typical things that people deal with: finding a mate, raising a family, paying the bills, maintaining sanity, worshiping, building friendships, having fun, but in a different culture, then there are even more opportunities for ³cultural stress² to impact an ITAıs teaching,² she said.

    ITAs are usually evaluated for linguistic and pedagogical skills before beginning their assistantship. Mandates for such evaluations might be a result of state law, or university-system or institutional mandates. Methods for evaluation may vary. Commonly used methods include:

  • Commercial tests such as the TSE or SPEAK tests (See March/April 1999 issue of American Language Review for a detailed description of these tests).
  • Face-to-face interviews
  • Teaching Simulations

    Practices employed through universities may vary with policy, philosophy and practicality. Jonathan Seely, ITA Testing Coordinator at the University of Arizona said, ³Iım concerned about teaching the test versus teaching the language. We are aware of all the TOEFL [Test of English as a Foreign Language] materials and the tremendous emphasis - in some countries - on teaching ³test-wisedness² rather than language. But we should remind ourselves that the administrations of the TOEFL versus the TSE/SPEAK are for very different reasons. In essence, the former is for admission to a school whereas the latter is to ensure that undergraduates have comprehensible instructors.

    ³In other words, coaching the TOEFL rather than teaching the language may eventually hurt only the student who consequently passes that test; on the other hand, when this happens with respect to the TSE/ SPEAK we are possibly hurting the undergraduate student. We have to ask why we give the tests. Students obviously should be familiar with the format of the TSE/SPEAK, but I have serious problems with an emphasis on coaching the test rather than on teaching the language. Were it not for the loss of some objectivity and the expense and time involved, I would prefer to dispense with the TSE/SPEAK altogether and to rely instead on teaching demonstrations.

    Panvini expressed similar views. ³My personal opinion is that the SPEAK should only be one criterion used to determine whether or not an international is ready to assume a TA position.

    ³Mock teaching sessions [or microteaching] and/or interviews should also be used. Undergraduates should be included in the assessment of these sessions [as well as faculty and ITA administrators].

    ³As for the SPEAK, ITAs should be fully informed of the nature of the SPEAK test and even have a chance to hear and practice some of the questions.

    But coaching them so that their performance on the SPEAK doesnıt reflect their true speaking abilities doesnıt benefit anyone.²

    Faculty developers often speak of addressing the ³whole faculty,² recognizing that teaching is just one part of a faculty memberıs life and they donıt leave the rest of their lives at the classroom door, said Panvini. ³

    Likewise, I approach ITA development as addressing the Œwhole ITAı and recognize that if many of these pedagogical and cultural issues arenıt dealt with, then regardless of what I do with the language development, then many ITAs will struggle with their TA duties.

    Our program pairs ITAs with undergraduates so the ITAs can practice English, practice teaching, and learn more about American culture.

    ³Many other programs are starting similar initiatives,² said Panvini. Techniques designed to help prepare ITAs for teaching situations include relevant ESL and/or communication skills courses, and opportunities to communicate with native-English speakers _ especially other TAs and undergraduates who can provide some perspective on the teaching situations the ITA is experiencing or might encounter in the future.
    Effective techniques include:

  • Opportunities for mid-semester feedback through videotaping the ITA in the teaching situation;
  • Student interviews;
  • Student feedback forms;
  • Classroom observations by a teaching supervisor, peer TA, or ITA developer; and
  • Mentoring by an ITA developer, faculty advisor, or experienced TA.

    These modes of feedback are often offered to both faculty and TAs, but can especially help ITAs as part of a ³routine² ITA development program.

    Amy Burns Short is Director of Graduate Student Teaching Programs at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. The second part of her study of ITAs will be pub- lished in the July/August 1999 issue of American Language Review.