Materializing assessment: spatial repertoires and dialectic proficiency in oral English proficiency examinations for international teaching assistants in the US

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Sarah Sok ◽  
Qian Du ◽  
Jerry Won Lee
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
International Teaching Assistants ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Teaching

scholarly journals The Experiences of International Teaching Assistants in the US Classroom

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Comfort Tosin Adebayo ◽  
Mike Allen
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
International Teaching Assistants ◽  
Classroom Culture ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Significant Challenge ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Teaching ◽  
Competence Framework ◽  
Practical Implications

Most research focusing on the challenges that international teaching assistants (ITAs) encounter in U.S. classrooms employs a linguistic perspective. The present study furthers that research by examining other challenges unique to ITAs, through the lens of an intercultural competence framework. Through individual interviews with 15 ITAs, the study highlights the challenges related to competencies in knowledge and skills faced by ITAs in U.S. classrooms. Findings reveal that knowledge about the U.S. education system, expectations of the classroom culture, and assumptions about student–instructor relationships pose the greatest difficulties. Additionally, the ability of an ITA to demonstrate communication skills remains a significant challenge, including the negative perception of speaking with a foreign accent and selecting effective word choices to accurately represent content. The study findings present practical implications for training ITAs for their pedagogical duties at U.S. colleges.

scholarly journals Comparing Student Perceptions of the Classroom Climate Created by U.S. American and International Teaching Assistants

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuping Mao ◽  
Kevin R. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Classroom Climate ◽  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
International Teaching Assistants ◽  
Teaching Evaluations ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
International Teaching ◽  
Survey Results

<p>Previous studies have revealed that American undergraduate students complain about International Teaching Assistants’ (ITAs) lack of English proficiency and rate ITAs lower than American Teaching Assistants (ATAs) on teaching evaluations. This study investigates student perceptions of classroom climate to discover how ITAs might overcome students’ ethnocentric preconceptions. Survey results from 485 undergraduate students found that student perceptions of classroom climate differed significantly with ITAs as compared to ATAs. Student perceptions of classroom climate also differed significantly by the biological sex of the student. The biological sex of the TA did not have a significant impact on student perceptions of classroom climate.</p>

Intelligibility Rating of L2 Speech Pre- and Postintervention

1989 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn Perlmutter
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
International Teaching Assistants ◽  
State University ◽  
Green State ◽  
Bowling Green State University ◽  
International Teaching ◽  
Intelligibility Ratings

As a result of a recent law passed in Ohio, a program was designed to improve the oral intelligibility of International Teaching Assistants at Bowling Green State University. To evaluate the efficacy of the training, naive undergraduate students were asked to evaluate the pre- and postrecorded speech samples of the international students, both in terms of intelligibility of the sample and the identification of the topic of the monologue. Analysis showed a significant improvement in the intelligibility ratings between pre- and posttraining samples. Further, the average number of correct subject matter identifications was shown to increase, while the average number of incorrect judgments decreased significantly from pre- to posttraining evaluations.

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