The possession of a foreign accent constitutes one of the challenges international teaching assistants have to deal with in their encounters in U.S. classrooms. This challenge often impacts their perceived competence and effectiveness in the classroom. Consequently, undergraduate students usually have existing stereotypes about international…

Today, millions of students cross geographic, cultural, and educational borders for their higher education. Trends of international student mobility are significant to universities, educators, business leaders, and governments to increase revenue and campus diversity in the global marketplace. As such, it is vital to examine recent trends in…

If the United States is to benefit from the contributions of international teaching assistants in the classroom, both domestic and foreign students must develop a reciprocal understanding of behaviors and expectations. Both parties need to adapt teaching and learning behaviors and should have more interaction. (MSE)

Bachman's framework of language testing and standard of authenticity for language testing instruments were used to evaluate three instruments--the SPEAK (Spoken Proficiency English Assessment Kit) test, OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview), and a performance test--as language tests for nonnative-English-speaking teaching assistants. (Contains 53…

Cultural and language barriers facing foreign teaching assistants are discussed. Universities may test the spoken English ability of foreign graduate students and train currently employed foreign teaching assistants through lectures, tapes, and demonstration of teaching skills; information on American campus life; and English practice. Follow-up…

This guide addresses the supervisory challenges of college faculty in preparing graduate assistants to become better teachers and researchers. The guide's purpose is to provide faculty members with an understanding of how to think and plan as a supervisor and how to prepare and nurture the next generation of university teachers, scholars, and…

Noting that materials available on the topic have undergone a numerical explosion over the last decade and now number in the hundreds, this 43-item annotated bibliography on preparing graduate teaching assistants includes books, journal articles, conference papers and videotapes published between 1963 and 1990. The first item in the bibliography…

The guide contains suggestions for University of Tennessee, Knoxville foreign teaching assistants to improve their command of spoken English. The first section offers four speech improvement suggestions requiring little or no extra time, including speaking English as much and as often as possible, imitating native speakers, asking for the correct…

Results of a need analysis of foreign-born teaching assistants (FTAs) at Drexel University (Pennsylvania) and also at the University of Pennsylvania are presented. Attention was focused on the duties and performance of native speaker TAs and the linguistic and interactional skills that account for success, and problems that negatively affect FTA…

To prepare new international graduate students for assignments as teaching assistants, the University of Washington chemistry department worked with specialists in language, pedagogy, and chemistry to design a discipline-specific training program. The program's structure, participants, benefits and limitations, and effectiveness in its first year…

Results of a study of international graduate teaching assistant (ITA) language competence suggest that groups of undergraduates can provide a responsible majority vote regarding the readiness of an ITA to assume instructional duties, if those undergraduate focus on categories identified in a formal evaluation sheet. An evaluation sheet is…

This document presents 11 papers that consider the problems and opportunities relating to the design and implementation of training programs for foreign teaching assistants (FTAs): "Academic Sub-cultures within U.S. Higher Education: Implications for FTA Training of Differences in Teaching Styles and Methods" (Patricia Byrd); "Cross-cultural…

The communication difficulties of foreign teaching assistants (TA) in U.S. colleges are addressed in 11 articles, with attention to the problems of the TA system as a whole in the spirit of international educational exchange. Titles and authors include the following: "'The Foreign TA Problem'" (Kathleen M. Bailey); 'Toward an Anthropology of the…

This case study of an international teaching assistant's experience with college teaching focuses on the process of becoming an effective instructor in the undergraduate classroom. A developmental model that emphasizes clarifying the student's individual linguistic, cultural, social, and professional goals is suggested, and implications for…

A handbook for foreign teaching assistants (TAs) is presented by foreign graduate students with teaching experience and other educators who have worked closely with them. Language skills, teaching strategies, cultural issues, resources, and the environment at the University of California, Berkeley, are addressed in 16 articles. Article titles and…