Babak Khoshnevisan, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA

Along with the growing recognition of the capabilities of international teaching assistants (ITAs) in teacher education, the fundamental premise of the native-English-speaking teacher (NEST)/nonnative-English-speaking teacher (NNEST) dichotomy has undergone a serious challenge. This destabilization has led to a reconceptualization of the binary definition of the dichotomy (Trent, 2016). This growing recognition of NNESTs in the field of second language acquisition has surfaced a series of unfounded ideas coupled with false beliefs about NNESTs in language education and teacher education (Alghofaili & Elyas, 2017). This article aims to shed light on my personal experience concerning English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) teacher training courses at the University of South Florida (USF), portray my distinct positioning as an ITA, and finally explicate the paramount importance of ITAs in fostering a professional milieu.

Recognized as a lingua franca, English is referred to as a global language. On a global scale, 80% of English language teachers are estimated to be NNESTs (Canagarajah, 2005). Multiple studies have addressed the NEST/NNEST dichotomy, but based on my review of the literature, it appears that few have investigated the true potential of ITAs in teacher education (Alghofaili & Elyas, 2017). It is my experience that, in the field of teacher education, ITAs in an English-speaking country may suffer from the supremacy of NESTs who are equipped with a unique mental lexicon—systematic organization of the words represented in minds. Recruiter unfamiliarity with the true potential of ITAs has complicated the issue. In light of this, NESTs are often preferred over ITAs.

In recent years, the influx of immigrants from the Middle East and Africa to different destinations—ranging from Europe to the United States—has rendered ESOL teacher education an important topic in language education. As the number of English learners (ELs) increases in the United States, the need for ESOL teachers rises. In reciprocal fashion, ESOL teachers (either NEST or NNEST) attempt, often in vain, to employ effective methods to accommodate students’ instructional needs. Notwithstanding the NEST/NNEST binary, more often than not, the inefficiency of the instruction offered emanates from teachers’ lack of knowledge on how to attend to the distinct needs of ELs. To learn what services schools and teachers can provide to foster EL achievement and to improve their skills, teachers may enroll in ESOL courses.

At USF, preservice teachers in all disciplines matriculate in three ESOL courses to receive ESOL endorsement upon graduation. ESOL courses are offered at the undergraduate level, both face-to-face and online, for different majors to meet the instructional needs of immigrant children nationwide. Teacher educators at USF are predominantly PhD students (ITAs) in the Technology in Education and Second Language Acquisition Program. The PhD students’ backgrounds are diverse. The teacher educators come from different countries with different cultural and educational backgrounds. This variety inherently enrich the workplace because different teacher educators can have

Preservice teachers are subject matter educators enrolled in ESOL courses to effectively learn how to teach ELs in their future classrooms. According to the U.S. Every Student Succeeds Act, K–12teachers are required to provide ELs with appropriate means to catch up with the other native-English-speaking students. Accordingly, teacher educators need to be equipped with not only educational tools but also sufficient cultural awareness to properly prepare their preservice teachers. For teacher educators, familiarity with the cultural and educational backgrounds of the immigrant children is considered an advantage. Learners’ cultural and educational background, if effectively integrated with the course, can equip preservice teachers with useful tools. In this sense, both native teaching assistants (henceforth NTAs) and ITAs have advantages as teacher educators.

NTAs are vital resources in that they are raised in the target culture and can transfer, or at least showcase, their firsthand experience and sociocultural competence of their home countries. In this regard, NTAs can familiarize preservice teachers with cultural norms and practices through participating in different cultural events. That is not, however, to say that ITAs are not also capable of showcasing cultural norms for their preservice students to make them aware of cross-cultural differences. NTAs with working knowledge of English and with sociocultural competence should also be able to familiarize their preservice teachers with the target culture. Similarly, ITAs can showcase their firsthand experience concerning their home countries, which, in turn, can enhance their preservice teachers’ understanding. Because both native and nonnative preservice teachers matriculate in ESOL courses, a combination of NTAs and ITAs can contribute to enhancing the preservice teachers’ understanding regarding different norms and practices in and out of the United States. Notwithstanding the first language of preservice teachers, such in-depth sociocultural competence can later be employed in classrooms while working with ELs. My belief is that ITAs do not lag behind NTAs. On the contrary, they have a whole arsenal of tools at their disposal, enabling them to craft an efficient course.

From my personal experience, preservice teachers in ESOL courses bring certain expectations to their classrooms partly formed by their prior knowledge and partly shaped by ESOL courses they have taken. It is not surprising that their expectations do not match the realities of teaching in a physical classroom. Khoshnevisan (2017b) reports that preservice teachers’ expectations may undermine the complexities of teaching tasks in a real classroom with ELs. To tackle the issue, he conducted a multiple case study and explored preservice teachers’ perceptions of their first field experience. The results implied that the process of teacher identity construction includes five nonlinear stages that do not differ between NTAs and ITAs (consistent with Khoshnevisan, 2017a; Khoshnevisan 2018; Rashtchi & Khoshnevisan, 2019). Beginning with hesitations and doubts, preservice teachers go through recognizing the learned strategies, exploring the techniques in action, and increasing willingness to teach. The cycle completes with building trust and confidence. My question, however, is “Are ITAs as effective as NTAs for ESOL teacher training courses?”

I, an ITA who prepares preservice teachers, had to compete with a pool of applicants including both NTAs to ITAs to teach at the undergraduate level. For the last 3 years, I have taught preservice teachers at USF. When I first started my career as a teacher educator, I was feeling the same way as preservice teachers that I train: I started with hesitations and doubts. Nonetheless, my long-standing interest in teacher education coupled with my experience in the field minimized the pressure. In retrospect, I have a vivid memory of my hesitations as an ITA.

Initially, training native teacher candidates was cumbersome for me as an ITA. Admittedly, I positioned myself as inferior compared with natives. Time dramatically changed my self-image. As time went by, I took full responsibility for my courses, and I learned that a combination of NTAs and ITAs in the program was mutually beneficial. NTAs raised my American cultural awareness. In return, if they were not already familiar, I could inform my native colleagues about cultural issues and social structures of the immigrant children’s home countries. All in all, I experienced an unconditionally supportive atmosphere, and I deem this combination is a sine qua non—in the context of the United States.

As the program matures and advances, the need for ITAs waxes, which eventually amounts to a quality program including NTAs and ITAs. This improvement in the quality of ESOL courses is the result of trusting ITAs in teacher education. Currently, at USF the native/nonnative debate (in terms of TAs) has dissolved, and the competition has been substituted with a unique collaboration. The majority of ESOL teacher educators at USF are nonnative, and the results of student surveys (consistent with the informal chats with preservice teachers) indicate that there is no significant difference in students’ motivation and academic achievements when it comes to the native language of TAs.

To sum up, it appears that both NTAs and ITAs in teacher training courses are capable of addressing cross-cultural issues and showcasing the issues with which immigrant children are dealing. In this sense, ITAs as teacher educators are priceless resources that can enhance preservice teachers’ cultural understanding. The results of my study imply that ESOL preservice teachers are not fully cognizant of cultural issues that are deeply rooted in the immigrant children they will teach. However, ITAs can contribute to increasing preservice teachers’ awareness. More specifically, a close collaboration between NTAs and ITAs in teacher education can supply preservice teachers with cultural and educational backgrounds from both home and host countries. Consequently, because they can employ their multicompetence, ITAs learn not to position themselves as inferior regardless of teachers’ personality type (see Rashtchi & Mashhoor, 2019). Features of ITAs, such as multilingualism and cognizance of immigrant children’s educational backgrounds and home country social structures, confirm the importance of ITAs in ESOL teacher education courses. In short, the growing recognition of the capabilities of ITAs in teacher education contributes to building a professional milieu befitting ITAs.

References

Alghofaili, N. M., & Elyas, T. (2017). Decoding the myths of the native and non-native English speakers teachers (NESTs & NNESTs) on Saudi EFL tertiary students. English Language Teaching, 10(6), 1–11.

Canagarajah, A. S. (2005). Reclaiming the local in language policy and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Khoshnevisan, B. (2017a). Developmental stages of preservice teachers: A critical analysis. TEIS Newsletter. Retrieved from http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolteis/issues/2017-09-25/2.html

Khoshnevisan, B. (2017b, February). The first field experience: Perceptions of two ESOL preservice teachers. Paper presented at the Tenth International Conference on Language Teacher Education, Los Angeles, CA.

Khoshnevisan, B. (2018). The developmental stages of ITAs: An introspection. ITAIS Newsletter. Retrieved from http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolitais/issues/2018-06-26/4.html

Rashtchi, M., &Khoshnevisan, B. (2019). The developmental stages of teachers: A critical analysis. In W. B. James & C. Cobanoglu (Eds.), Proceedings of the Global Conference on Education and Research (GLOCER) Conference (Vol. 3, pp. 2–8). Tampa, FL: ANAHEI. Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=anaheipublishing

Rashtchi, M., & Mashhoor, H. S. (2019). Extravert and introvert EFL teachers: How do reflective teaching and burnout relate? Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 6(3), 73–88.

Trent, J. (2016). The NEST–NNEST divide and teacher identity construction in Hong Kong

schools. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 15(5), 306–320.