scholarly journals English Communication for International Teaching Assistants

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-201
Author(s):  
Rui Ma
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
International Teaching Assistants ◽  
Strategic Competence ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
Sociolinguistic Competence ◽  
International Teaching

English Communication for International Teaching Assistants is at extbook written specifically for international teaching assistants (ITAs) working in a typical U.S. undergraduate classroom. An ITA might speak fluently in English with a clear pronunciation, yet the undergraduate students in an US classroom may still have difficulty understanding him or her. High English oral proficiency does notnecessarily lead to an ITA’s communicative competence, which, according to Canale and Swain (1980), includes grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and also strategic competence.

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.

scholarly journals Multilingualism and Multiculturalism Impact on Shaping Oral Literacy and Communicative Competence

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-54
Author(s):  
Norizan Abdul Razak ◽  
Nur Fadhila Binti Ahmad ◽  
Nabila Binti Suhaimi ◽  
Khairun Nadrah Binti Saidin ◽  
Abdul Azim Bin Mahda
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Specific Structure ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Conversational Analysis ◽  
Strategic Competence ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
Interview Session ◽  
Sociolinguistic Competence

This study was conducted to investigate on how does the multilingual and multicultural factor affect an individual oral literacy by conducting an interview session and correspondingly examine the features of the conversation from the interview session through a conversational analysis method. The purpose of the study is to have a better understanding of the strategies involved during the learning and acquisition process, the peers and surroundings of the participants, the elements of multiculturalism and multilingualism exhibited in the case of study. The studies show a different strategy was adopted in order to achieve the communicative competence as suggested by Canale and Swain (1980). The results shows that the learners achieved the communicative competence by recognizing the specific structure and features of the language (grammatical competence), understanding the historical background of the ethnicity belong to the language (sociolinguistic competence), practicing the languages ( strategic competence) and understanding the language coherent by listening (discourse competence).

Test taker-initiated repairs in an English oral proficiency exam for international teaching assistants

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Hyeri Kim ◽  
Innhwa Park
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
International Teaching Assistants ◽  
Test Taker ◽  
Hearing Problem ◽  
International Teaching ◽  
Open Class

AbstractThis paper is a conversation-analytic examination of video-recorded interactions between questioners and test takers during an English oral proficiency exam for international teaching assistants (ITAs). We focus on the test takers’ repair strategies identified in our data, and describe how distinct repair strategies influence the repair solution in the next turn. The test takers’ open-class repair initiator (e.g., “sorry?”) is likely to be treated as a hearing problem, and thus is responded to with the questioners’ repetition of the question. In contrast, the test takers’ targeted repair initiator (e.g., “what do you mean by x?”) is likely to be treated as an understanding problem, and thus is responded to with the questioners’ reformulation of the question. This reformulation generally helps the test takers successfully respond to the question despite the initial understanding problem. The findings have implications for teaching oral communication skills to ITAs, repair strategies in particular. They also contribute to improving performance-based oral proficiency exam by introducing different sequential trajectories that emerge from problems in hearing or understanding.

scholarly journals An Intersectional Analysis of the English-Competency Experiences of International Teaching Assistants

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashish Agrawal ◽  
Lisa McNair
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
International Teaching Assistants ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
International Graduate ◽  
International Teaching ◽  
English Competence

International graduate students serving as teaching assistants constitute a major component of the teaching of undergraduate students at US universities, particularly in engineering. Prior literature on these international teaching assistants (ITAs) generally characterizes their linguistic experiences as challenges. This characterization can be attributed to an institutional environment that is reluctant to accommodate diverse ways of speaking English. This study applies an intersectionality framework to explore the variations in ITAs’ English-language experiences and the influence of the academic context on these experiences using semi-structured interviews and weekly reflections collected from seven engineering ITAs over a semester. Results of data analysis suggest that ITAs’ English proficiency varies based on their prior exposure to English in their home countries, and their English competence improves through their teaching experiences in the US. Participants’ experiences also highlight a perceived expectation to not only use English while teaching but also adapt to American English.

scholarly journals The Communicative Competence Components Analysis in Using English through EIR

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-85
Author(s):  
Ayu Silvana Faradilla ◽  
Dwi Rukmini
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Formal Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Strategic Competence ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Sociolinguistic Competence ◽  
Components Analysis ◽  
Discourse Competence

This study was aimed to explain the communicative competence components of the fourth semester English Department students through English Interaction Room (EIR). The communicative competence components in using English were analyzed based on the grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. This study used qualitative method which means that the data of this study were explained by using descriptive analysis method. The result showed that (1) Mostly, the utterances of the participants were ungrammatical in syntax, while some were in morpheme, but those were acceptable (2) Mostly the utterances were appropriate with the topic discussed. the participants were able to construct a unified discourse, (3) Mostly, the utterances seemed natural and used less formal language, and (4) Most participants used achievement strategy to hold the conversation. In conclusion, most of EIR participants are communicative in using English viewed from the discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. They need to increase their competence of using English grammar.  Keywords: Communicative Competence; Using English; English Interaction Room (EIR).

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>

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