October 2015
ARTICLES
INTERNATIONAL POSTDOCTORATES: THE LANGUAGE GAP
Morag Burke, Georgie Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Background

The postdoctoral population in the United States is composed of 60% international scholars holding visas (National Science Foundation, 2010). Although this is a significant portion of the postdoc population, their English language learning needs, as well as cultural adaptation needs, are often unmet in the higher education setting. Unlike international teaching assistants (ITAs) and international graduate students, few international postdocs receive cultural training, language instruction, or support once they start their positions in American universities. Whether the postdoc is here to fulfill primarily a research position or a teaching position, the ability to communicate well in English and navigate the U.S. academic culture will directly affect his or her success in his or her immediate position and long-term career horizon.

Unlike ITAs, who are often well-served in universities by established programs, international postdocs seldom receive an orientation to teaching pedagogy or to the cross-cultural issues that surface when they are faced with the North American academic culture. These issues have implications for the implementation of the language proficiency requirements established by the Department of State in January 2015 (Department of State, 2015). There is a dearth of information on how this postdoc population is being served in colleges and universities across the United States.

Recently, some ITA programs have been charged with incorporating international postdocs into their programming. However, the time constraints, job demands, and learning needs of the postdocs differ significantly from the ITAs, often necessitating a different approach to meeting their needs.

Context

In order to explore the above issues with colleagues, I presented on this topic at the 2015 TESOL conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in March, and at the Graduate Career Consortium in New York, USA, in June 2015. In both cases, my presentations were formatted as discussion sessions with the purpose of presenting an overview of my own program and approaches to serving international postdocs, but with a primary goal of sharing best practices among colleagues who also work with international postdocs. However, in both cases, most attendees at the presentations had little information to share because working with postdocs was new or unknown for them. Most attendees were looking for ideas and information as a starting point to working with international postdocs. While I am also fairly new to working with this population, I have developed approaches that have been successful over the last 2 years which may prove useful for others beginning to work in this area.

Postdoc Services

As we know, not all techniques work with all students or in all situations. I am teaching in an embedded ESL program within the School of Math at Georgia Tech. My primary responsibility is to provide language support and teacher training to the ITAs in my department. However, I also work with the international postdocs as needed. All the postdocs in the department teach math courses, so the quality of their language skills is relevant to their positions and is emphasized more than postdocs who only have research responsibilities.

What follows is a summary of how I have been working with the international postdocs in my department:

  • Intake interview and language assessment via Skype prior to arrival in the United States
    • Most postdocs do not have TOEFL scores or any other English assessment score.
  • Teacher training and pronunciation courses available
    • In most cases, these are optional for the postdocs; it is only required in unusual cases.
    • For these topics, postdocs may join the same course as the ITAs.
  • One-on-one tutoring and small group tutoring
    • Postdocs tend to have more demands on their time than ITAs, so I meet with them individually to accommodate their schedules or in pairs if they are native speakers of the same language.
    • Throughout each tutoring session, I keep notes and provide a copy to the postdoc at the end of each session.
  • Class observation and feedback sessions
    • These are conducted as needed if there is a concern with the quality of teaching.
    • This may also be an extension of the tutoring sessions.
  • Video-recording teaching, guided self-assessment, and feedback
    • I assign a variety of activities to postdocs using video-recordings of their teaching as the material for self-reflection and correction.
  • Assistance with conference presentations and job interview practice
    • Postdocs meet with me to review their PowerPoint slides and the specific language they plan to use for conference presentations.
    • Job interview practice may take a variety of directions, depending on the individual.
  • Editing and feedback on academic writing and job-related documents

My hope is that this brief review of my approaches to working with international postdocs over the last 2 years will provide useful ideas and a starting point for others working with this population.

Reference

Department of State (2015). J-1 Visa. J1visa.state.gov. Retrieved 1 September 2015, from http://j1visa.state.gov.

National Science Foundation Division of Science Resource Statistics. (2010). Science and Engineering Labor Force. Science and engineering indicators 2010. Arlington, VA: National Science Board.

Dr. Morag Burke is the ITA program coordinator and ESL specialist, and teaches in the School of Math at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In this position, she works with the international community within the department, including ITAs, postdocs, and faculty.