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Help with Teaching Strategies Related to Cross-Cultural, Cross Language Barriers
Cultural differences may pose greater obstacles for effective learning than do accents. For example, attitudes about whether and when students should ask questions, the physical distance between the teacher and students, the amount of reliance on lecturing, the teacher's and students' body language, the appropriateness of casual conversation with the instructor before and after class, the practice of students talking to each other during class, practices dealing with absences--all of these behaviors and more may be affected by cultural perspectives, and differing cultural perspectives can contribute to serious misunderstandings between the TA and the student. Not only ITAs, but native-English speakers and faculty as well can benefit from reflecting on cultural differences, consciously choosing behavior that promotes a positive learning environment.
Likewise, pedagogical strategies for accommodating language differences and accents can be addressed directly during TA training. Teaching assistants can learn, for example, how to introduce key vocabulary, encourage questions, organize collaborative interactions among students, and solicit feedback from students so as to ascertain the degree of their comprehension.
Some of the above broadly useful activities may be tailored for ITAs, but the working group emphasizes that when they are, it is desirable to involve others--American TAs, faculty, and students--as early and as often as possible. The emphasis should remain on helping our internationals feel appreciated, not only for their characteristically outstanding intellectual ability, but for their special cultural identities.
One Model for Teacher Training
A particularly interesting vehicle for organizing teacher training has been offered by the Department of Physics since 1996. This program invites ITAs to come to Penn State a few days' prior to the regular orientation for international students that is conducted by the Office of International Programs. In collaboration with the Intensive English Program, the Physics Department conducts a training session for its international graduate students to directly address the cultural and other barriers that they must overcome in the classroom when they first arrive in this country. Students receive twenty hours of intense training. The response to this program has been very positive, with several variations being tried.
The working group sees merit in the Physics Department model and discussed it at some length. It is important for ITAs to be welcomed and to sense that Penn State really cares about their success. Typically, they have been top students in their home universities and are accustomed to success and admiration. They can easily develop feelings of inadequacy when placed in new language situations--a poor foundation for the growth they seek as students and professionals.
Thus, a fine starting point for a university-wide effort to improve teacher training for ITAs would be to employ a model similar to the Physics approach, but extended well into the fall semester. ITAs would be asked to arrive a few days--perhaps as few as two--prior to the regular Office of International Programs orientation days and participate in the development of teaching and learning promotion skills. This pre-orientation should be organized centrally, but operated by departmental and college personnel, with assistance as appropriate. The process would continue intermittently for many weeks. During the formal Office of International Programs orientation, special ITA preparation could be scheduled for a single hour per day to focus on the culture of the American classroom, preferably with participation of experienced American TAs and even some senior undergraduates. Some of these short meetings could be substantially social, and all should certainly be informal. Facilitation would be needed, and many facilitators are available. As the fall semester begins, sessions could continue on a weekly basis, well into the semester. Feedback and dialogue among new ITAs, experienced ITAs, domestic TAs, undergraduates and facilitators should be a very positive experience for all involved. Of course, both ITAs and domestic TAs should also continue to participate in university-wide activities, such as CELT courses, SIIL activities, ETS courses, and department and college programs aimed at better communication and better teaching as well as management of content.
It should be emphasized that the thrust of the foregoing is on making all the participants, including TAs and ITAs, familiar with strategies for drawing the best from the undergraduates with whom they work. All instructors, with or without an accent, will be well appreciated by students if they have those skills and can project that they care about student learning.
Finally, as part of the effort to help ITAs improve their teaching, it is true that some ITAs may need to improve their knowledge of English and to reduce problem accent sounds. Further training in language skills, including improving accents, is discussed next in this report.
Recommendation 2: The University administration should organize, and colleges and departments should implement, an ongoing teaching/learning colloquium for new ITAs, which would begin with some days dedicated to discussion and practice just before the International Programs Office orientation. Patterned after the model now employed by the Physics Department, they would continue with informal discussions, ideally involving American TAs, during the orientation period and well into the fall semester.
3. Employ a Higher English-Competency Standard for Allowing ITAs to Teach
Current policy and practice for testing the English proficiency of ITAs stems from 1981 University Faculty Senate legislation, updated in 1991 and 1993. This legislation calls for departments to prepare all TAs for teaching and also requires ITAs for whom English is a second language to be evaluated on their English communicative proficiency.
The Program in English as a Second Language (PESL) developed the American English Oral Communicative Proficiency Test (AEOCPT) which contains features from the SPEAK test developed by the Educational Testing Services and includes a scoring and rating scale (0-300) for pronunciation, fluency, and overall comprehensibility. The American English Oral Communicative Proficiency Test consists of a twenty-minute face-to—face interview administered by two trained raters from the Speech Communication Department's Program in English as a Second Language .
Depending on their test scores, the graduate students may teach immediately without any additional English preparation or may have to take one or more courses in English before teaching. Students who earn a score of 250/300 are considered qualified to teach without any special additional requirement. Students whose scores fall in the 230-249 range are permitted to teach but it is recommended (in some departments "required") that they simultaneously enroll in a three-credit course, SPCOM 118G: ESL for Teaching Assistants II. Currently there is no exit exam for this course that would require passing a test for spoken English. At the lower skill levels, students are required to take SPCOM 115G 117G: ESL for Teaching Assistants prior to teaching and to taking SPCOM 118G. Currently, a department representative and an undergraduate student representative are invited to attend various testing sessions, but undergraduates rarely take part.. Finally, students who score below 200 must take 115G: ESL: Speaking and Listening and 117G prior to teaching and must pass the exit exam. 118G is then recommended.
The above policy is the primary mechanism at Penn State for ensuring that ITAs can handle teaching situations in English. The PESL tests eligible students three times a year (at the beginning of each semester and in summer) for such competency. In addition, Pennsylvania law (Act 76 of 1990) requires every department to certify that its graduate students, along with other international faculty, are competent in the English language.
A review of the performance on the AEOCPT test by incoming ITAs in recent years indicates that a consistent fraction, more than half, do not achieve the 250 score that is held to be satisfactory for teaching without any special additional requirement. And nearly a third do not achieve the score of 230 that might allow them to teach while simultaneously taking the SPCOM 118G (We have no information on whether this expectation is observed.). While neither the test nor its administration should be expected to make error-free discrimination between those who can communicate well as teachers and those who cannot, these data strongly suggest that Penn State undergraduates are indeed likely to encounter ITAs whose English is problematic. The working group therefore concludes that a series of actions should be taken to improve the situation.
The standard AEOCPT score for unrestricted certification should remain at 250. However, those scoring between 230 and 249 should be required to complete SPCOM 118G with a grade of "A" before they undertake classroom teaching assignments.
Those ITAs who score below 230 should be required to complete the appropriate courses and achieve a grade of "A" in SPCOM 118G before being assigned to classroom duties. Moreover, students in these categories should be counseled toward research assignments where possible.
Recommendation 3: The Department of Speech Communication should raise the minimum score on the American English Oral Communicative Proficiency Test (AEOCPT) for certification for ITAs to function in the classroom from 230 to 250 (or achievement of a grade of "A" in SPCOM 118G.)
This increase in the cut-off score will result in the need for additional support to the Department of Speech Communication to offer courses necessary to prepare ITAs to meet the new standard as well as to cover related administrative costs. A preliminary estimate of these resources is $60,735 for instruction plus further funding for administrative support.
To help ITAs who wish to work on their accents, software, such as the Ellis Master Pronunciation package used at Michigan State, should be purchased, and a group of tutors should be trained to help the graduate students use the resources. There are a number of agencies in the University that could be helpful in this effort including the Program in English as a Second Language, the Sparks Language Learning Center, and the Department of Communication Disorders. Used elsewhere, similar strategies have been shown to produce desirable results in dealing with pronunciation issues.
Recommendation 4: The University should expand its resources for reducing difficult-to-understand accents to include software and qualified support.
Finally, the Undergraduate Student Government should be invited to follow its February resolution that stated a need for greater English proficiency among ITAs by organizing undergraduates to participate in assessing ITAs' skills. For example, undergraduates should regularly and consistently participate in the assessment processes that result in final grades in the SPCOM 118G courses.
Recommendation 5: Undergraduate Student Government should take responsibility for ensuring that students play a regular and active role in the assessment of the readiness of ITAs to function in the classroom.
4. Improve Practices for Recruiting ITAs
In raising the threshold of language competency required for allowing international graduate students to teach, it becomes more important than ever to bring to Penn State those talented students who already have significant skills in spoken English, reducing frequency of language situations that are unfortunate for all concerned. Steps should be taken to minimize recruiting international students whose English is singularly problematic.
The working group thus recommends that graduate programs include spoken English ability as a criterion for admission and offers of teaching assistantships to international students. Departments should take advantage of as many measures as possible in assessing applicants' skills. In addition to considering TOEFL and GRE verbal scores, some have found telephone interviews helpful in assessing the oral skills of applicants prior to making offers. A brief telephone conversation can reveal language competency and pronunciation difficulties in a way that written tests frequently cannot. Telephone interviews, results from ETS's Test of Spoken English (TSE), or other measures, are particularly important in evaluating candidates for graduate assistantships.
The working group further recommends that the University consider employing a recruitment strategy now used by Michigan State, which sends a testing team to a few locations in the Far East to conduct tests of English speaking ability before students are accepted to graduate school. This could be done in late fall or early winter to help identify the strongest candidates for assistantships. The University should consider coordinating such testing with other universities in the CIC.
Further, if a significant number of departments wish to invite new ITAs to come to University Park for the summer session prior to their first fall semester it would be very desirable to administer English competency tests and offer Speech Communication 115 through 118G during the summer. Clearly, some additional costs would be associated with that initiative.
Recommendation 6: All units making offers to international graduate students for whom English is a second language, should conduct telephone interviews prior to extending offers.
Recommendation 7: The University should consider administering an English speaking test overseas, similar to a process employed by Michigan State.
5. Recognize Outstanding Efforts by ITAs and Vehicles for Conversation, Interaction, and Sharing of Good Practices Among Them.
In a setting in which the main mission is to help students learn, excellent teaching is always laudable. How much more attractive is the teaching-learning exchange when instruction is provided by brilliant persons from other countries who brings skills and backgrounds to which students might otherwise never be exposed?
There are a number of international faculty members, TA's, and others who have already been cited for their excellent teaching. Not only should these examples be widely circulated, but further steps should be taken to assess the work of all TAs, and to recognize and reward good teaching by ITAs.
Recommendation 8: Formative assessment of TA teaching/learning skills, should be carried out by departments and colleges and successes should be recognized and celebrated University-wide.
6. Create Vehicles to Promote A Greater Appreciation within the Penn State Learning Community for International, Intercultural, and Linguistic Diversity.
There is no question that some Penn State undergraduates do not welcome professors or ITAs who speak in accented English. This attitude is unfortunate and unproductive, for individuals from other countries who come here to study and teach have a great deal to offer American undergraduates. Penn State students, as they enter the university, should be made aware that at this institution they will meet and work with numerous people who have different attributes, including accented English. They should be led to reflect on the benefits of living in a community that serves as a microcosm of the international world that will be their future work environment. How much better to learn now, in an environment in which all are learners, about differing customs, work styles, art forms, religions, and other practices and values--than later, in a work environment in which getting to know others can be more difficult?
When the actions discussed above are taken, our students can be confident that people whose English is unsatisfactory will not be teaching their classes. But students will also learn the benefits of interacting with individuals from other cultures and realize that--as with all learning situations--effort is required. Accordingly, the working group, which includes strong student leaders, recommends that several activities be undertaken to help undergraduates prepare for interacting productively with internationals, including ITAs, and indeed other international faculty and undergraduates, early in their Penn State career. This should include students who spend their first two years at campus colleges, where there are no ITAs. Again, efforts to make American students and internationals fully functioning members of the same learning community can only improve the quality of education for all.
Opportunities are plentiful for helping undergraduates build mutually enriching relationships with internationals, including ITAs. For example, undergraduates could participate in formal and informal workshops to orient ITAs toward the culture of the American classroom during the formal pre-orientation for ITAs recommended above. As ITA orientation continues throughout the year at Penn State, undergraduates can help sponsor and participate in social activities, meals, discussion of movies, music and books--with these events serving not only to help ITAs develop rapport with American undergraduates but also enriching the education of the undergraduates themselves. To reach large numbers of Penn State undergraduates, upper-division students, notably those who have studied abroad, can visit first-year seminars to testify on how they have benefited from getting to know and work with people who are in some ways different and who may speak English differently or not at all. Finally, student and administrative offices can organize more events to bring undergraduates and internationals together for social and intellectual exchanges and help American students develop further the motivation and skill to communicate with those whose language and culture differ from theirs.
Recommendation 9: The orientation process should make undergraduate students aware early in their Penn State careers (for example, in their First-year Seminar) that they will be interacting with people for whom English is a second language. This should be presented as a positive opportunity, but one that will, like all learning experiences, require their effort.
Recommendation 10: Undergraduate Student Government, the Graduate School, the Office of Undergraduate Education, Student Affairs and the Office of International Programs should collaborate to create numerous opportunities for students to interact with international students. Undergraduate Student Government should also become more proactive in communicating what constructive next steps are currently in place that students can take when they do have difficulty understanding ITAs.
The working group believes that undergraduates could benefit from increased sensitivity to cultural diversity, in a multicultural world and global economy. From internet interaction to world commerce to world travel, the ability to interact with culturally- diverse people is crucial to the personal and professional success of our students. While knowledge of domestic and world cultures is desirable, these skills best are promoted by effective contact with culturally diverse people. General Education diversity courses focussing on the skills needed for interacting with diverse cultures and providing such contact should be developed by the faculty, and approved by the University Faculty Senate.
Recommendation 11: The faculty, through the University Faculty Senate, should undertake to offer more intensive intercultural experiences within the diversity focused courses.
We need to recognize the fact that ITAs need various skills to effectively provide positive learning experiences for our undergraduate students. Accordingly, departments/units will want to adjust their preparation programs and support strategies as they strive to enhance their ITAs/ communication and teaching skills. More recent data are needed on these topics. Further, systematic efforts should be undertaken to ensure that excellence in TA performance, including ITA performance, in promoting and advancing undergraduate learning is achieved, maintained, and recognized. Indeed, several ITAs have won departmental and college teaching awards in recent years. More ITAs will be in a position to do so, if these recommendations are adopted.
Recommendation 12: The Office of Undergraduate Education should update and expand the 1996 survey of departments/units, with the goal of assisting departments in improving their TA preparation programs. Also, the office should work with departments to improve their formative assessments of TA activities.
Penn State is very fortunate to have as many international students as it does. The community—all of it—must work together to make this good opportunity work for everyone.
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