Universities in the United States use their own English language assessment instruments to evaluate whether an international student is qualified to be an international teaching assistant (ITA) in an English-speaking environment. Over 670,000 international students attended U.S. institutions in 2008-2009, which was an 8 percent increase from the previous academic year (Fischer, 2009). With globalization and fewer borders around the world, this number has been growing. As the ITA-testing coordinator at the University of Southern California (USC), with training in second language assessment, I have responsibility to ensure that the ITA oral exams are valid and reliable, and that stakeholders are aware of their responsibility and role in the process. The entities affected by the ITA exam are

• Potential ITAs
• Undergraduate/graduate students taught by ITAs
• The department for which the ITA is teaching
• The university
• The workforce, society, and the country

The ITA exam administrators have an important role but are not stakeholders in this process.

POTENTIAL ITAs

The ITAs want to be TAs during their graduate years because

(a) It provides significant and sometimes only financial support (thereby affecting their families as well!) during the semester. This support could at times determine whether a student can remain in school.

(b) It is considered an honor to be appointed for a teaching assistantship by the advising professor.

(c) It is an important learning experience.

(d) Being a TA at a U.S. university is a significant addition to a student’s CV.

The ITAs’ stake in the ITA exam is of great significance, thereby elevating the exam to “high-stakes” status.

STUDENTS TAUGHT BY ITAs

If an undergraduate/graduate student is in a course with sessions taught by ITAs, the student will have a hard time understanding a low-proficiency nonnative speaker teaching assistant, and could become frustrated enough to create a problem reaching departmental or university officials. There is a point at which “cognitive fluency” (Lev-Ari & Keysar, 2010) is hindered by “unusual” language, and the brain has more difficulty processing the information when understanding is impeded by a heavy accent. It is therefore understandable that students, who have to struggle with difficult concepts during the professor’s lecture, would become frustrated trying to understand a heavily accented TA’s explanation of these concepts. These students, therefore, are greatly impacted by the TA choice for their classes because their grades and learning outcomes may be directly affected.

UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENTS

Departments for which the TA will work have the responsibility to assign the right TA to a class. The department has to make the decision to whom to grant financial support (in the form of a salary), has to ensure that the TA’s language proficiency is adequate and satisfies university standards and that the TA is knowledgeable about the subject matter, and also has to be able to provide financial support for the TA’s additional ESL classes, if necessary. Departments, therefore, have a substantial stake in the outcome of the ITA exam. If the ITA does not perform well, the department has to find another TA to teach the class, has to provide other types of financial support to the student who failed the test, and sometimes has to pay for the student’s ESL classes to prepare for possible future teaching assistantships.

THE UNIVERSITY

The university’s role in this process is to uphold standards of teaching. The university, in collaboration with its departments, has to ensure that undergraduate and graduate students receive instruction from teachers with adequate English proficiency for the overall purpose of the university’s mission to ensure equal opportunity to learn and to advance knowledge. The learning students also require that such standards be upheld because they invest in the university and in their own future by studying there. The university also has to consider the academic and social objective of diversity, which contributes to a rich learning experience. The university has to find the balance, therefore, between the obligations of language standards in teaching, the university’s prestige (i.e., each matriculated student will represent the institution with “good” or “bad” English), and the academic and business advantage of diversity (International students contribute $20 billion to the U.S. economy [Institute of International Education, 2010]). The university is a significant stakeholder in the ITA oral exam through which it upholds university standards and complies with the demands of students for quality education while promoting its academic objectives.

THE WORKFORCE, SOCIETY, AND COUNTRY

The workplace where college graduates will end up will be affected by the ITA exam because a degree from a U.S. university means that the student not only has a good education, but is assumed to have a good command of English. If a student’s English proficiency is low the school might not hire the applicant, or the school’s English-related work may suffer. Also, coworkers or conference listeners may spread the word that the university from where the student graduated is not supportive of language improvement or is not a first-class institution.

Society and the country are also affected by the ITA exam: If a student does not pass the exam and is not cleared to be a TA, without departmental support the student’s parents would have to pay full tuition, which thereby puts the burden on the family. It is possible, also, that the student would have to leave the United States for lack of funds. If the departments were to provide TA funds only to native English speakers, on the other hand, soon the foreign student population would decrease. International students are essential to the advancement of knowledge, not only because of the individual “brain power” they bring to their field but also because of the diversity necessary for academic and scientific advancement. The student’s society and country of origin are also affected because if students cannot study in the United States they might not be able to study in their respective countries because of a lack of educational opportunity at the local university or lack of the specialization/professor of a specific field.

ITA EXAM ADMINISTRATORS

The ITA exam administrators have a responsible role in the process of conducting the TA English oral exams but they are not stakeholders; they do not have an interest in the outcome of the evaluation. The administrators’ and language experts’ role is that of integrity and professionalism while ensuring the reliability and validity of the test. It is difficult not to think about the immediate consequences of a student’s low scores, or not to be affected by the high-stakes nature of the exam. However, the administrators and testers have to remain professional and independent executors of the plan set forth by all the stakeholders.

MAINTAINING THE BALANCE OF INTERESTS IN THE ITA EXAM PROCESS

In order to maintain a good balance among the stakeholders it is important to explain the dynamic of interests to the entities involved. The overarching goal and guideline should be that the university must ensure that students in the classroom are able to clearly understand their TAs. This should guide the departments when selecting international students as they apply for teaching assistantships, and guide the test administrators during assessment of the international student. Because the ITA test directly or indirectly impacts all the stakeholders, it is important to be aware of the consequences at every stage and to make testing a fair, reliable, and valid process.

REFERENCES

Fischer, K. (2009). Number of foreign students in U.S. hit a new high last year. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 56(13). Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Number-of-Foreign-Students-in/49142/

Institute of International Education. (2010). International education as an institutional priority. New York: Author. Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Publications-and-Reports/IIE-Bookstore/~/media/Files/Corporate/Publications/2011-Trustee-White-Paper.ashx

Lev-Ari, S., & Keysar, B. (2010). Why don’t we believe non-native speakers? Journal of Experimental Psychology, 46(6), 1093-1096.

Zsuzsa Cziraky Londe is the ITA testing coordinator at USC’s American Language Institute. She received her BA in linguistics from UCLA (summa cum laude) and an MA and PhD in applied linguistics, also from UCLA. Language teaching, assessment, and diversity are her ongoing academic interests.