A handbook for University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) teaching assistants is provided compiled from materials developed at UCLA and other college teaching programs. Separate sections cover: teaching roles, meeting the first class, leading sections, teaching one's own course, motivating students, teaching tips, preparing examinations,…

A MULTI-FACETED SCHEME FOR LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION PROPOSES (1) LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS, (2) AUTO-TUTORIAL ACQUISITION OF MOTOR SKILLS, AND (3) TEACHER-GUIDED USE OF LANGUAGE IN A SIMULATED NATURAL CONTEXT. THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN ADJUSTING TO THIS NEW FUNCTION OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING WERE STUDIED FOR THREE…

Discusses the author's attempts to incorporate small group learning into college mathematics courses. Gives suggestions for beginning to use small groups (including alternative ways of evaluation), reactions reflected in student journals, and an urging to find institutional and personal support while attempting change. (MKR)

Universities commonly rely upon International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) to teach basic courses. This use of ITAs is a considerable benefit to universities; however, there is substantial evidence to suggest that undergraduate students quite often object to being taught and graded by ITAs. If universities and their academic departments wish to…

This paper describes the Action Research (AR) Team model for joining classroom observations with collegial interaction among university faculty, teaching assistants, and university students to improve pedagogy and the retention of diverse students in higher education. The paper includes a progress report of efforts to develop the model and apply…

An examination was conducted of the planned and unplanned speech of 24 native speakers of Mandarin and Korean who were serving as teaching assistants at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Each was videotaped on two occasions two weeks apart in a preparation course for international teaching assistants (ITAs), in which instruction in the use of…

A handbook to help teaching assistants (TAs) define and implement teaching goals and to present materials effectively is presented as part of the Teaching Assistant Development Program at the University of California at San Diego. A checklist gives 20 skills that a TA needs to develop to be a good teacher. Behavioral learning goals and process…

Six issues of a University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) newsletter by and for teaching assistants (TAs) are presented. Each newsletter is a theme issue, covering writing, anxiety, motivation, TA role, and TA training. Topics include: student problems and psychological and counseling services, philosophies about writing, approaches to making…

This course, designed for instructing potential teaching assistants to teach college students a foreign language, concentrates on six major areas of preparation. A detailed outline covers: (1) course introduction and definitions, (2) applied linguistics, (3) approaches and methods, (4) testing, (5) classroom techniques, and (6) demonstrations.…

Based on an analysis of some 157 replies to a survey on the training and supervision of graduate teaching assistants, sponsored by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages, this study examines current trends in the type of supervision being offered by language departments.…

This collection of papers includes the following: "Style Wars: Teacher-Student Style Conflicts in the Language Classroom" (Rebecca L. Oxford, Madeline E. Ehrman, and Roberta Z. Lavine); "Articulating Learning in High School and College Programs: Holistic Theory in the Foreign Language Curriculum" (Janet Swaffar);…

It is argued that slowed-down speech is a useful tool for teaching both listening comprehension and pronunciation to students of English as a second language. For listening comprehension, introduction of more, and longer pauses at grammatical boundaries allows more time for processing speech. The greater number of accented words and shorter…

An instructional module designed to help prepare college-level teaching assistants (TAs) for their duties in second language instruction is presented. The module focuses on helping learners become skilled at second language listening. The first part provides background information about this language skill. It introduces the process of listening…

A study at Arizona State University investigated the relationships between types and amounts of student financial aid, student demographic and academic characteristics, persistence, and degree completion among 472 master's program students over a 4-year period from fall 1985 through summer 1989. Variables found to affect patterns included economic…

This study addressed the need for empirical tests of the global instructional design (ID) model as a toolkit for classroom teachers in authentic settings; and the performance improvement challenge of finding effective, efficient methods of professional development for preparing graduate assistants to teach. Participants were eighteen teaching…