Impetus for Change

About eighteen months ago in late May 2017, our university sought to redesign its international teaching assistant (ITA) preparation program to replace the training that had, to that point, been delivered by its intensive English program (IEP). A survey of ITA programs at our peer institutions revealed that a course-based approach predominates. In most of these programs, other activities like conversation partnerships and language labs are associated with traditional classroom instruction. But administrators at our university were keen on a more flexible approach—one that was untethered to the classroom, that allowed for open enrollment, and whose funding structure was not tuition based. As such, ITA training was rehomed to our Center for Teaching Excellence, and former faculty from the IEP were hired as instructional consultants (year-round staff positions) and tasked with designing this new program, which would take an individualized approach to ITA development, focus on high-impact pronunciation topics and functional language for classroom interactions, and be funded by international student fees.

After reviewing programs at peer institutions and literature from the fields of TESL, ITA professional associations, and even speech-language pathology (which plays a supporting role at some institutions; Schmidt & Sullivan, 2003), we designed a program named the Center for Teaching Excellence - English Language Proficiency Program (CTE-ELP), which opened its doors in August 2017 to both international graduate students and faculty.

A New Approach

The CTE-ELP uses an individualized approach that is flexible in many ways:

1. Clients can enter or exit the program at any time during the calendar year, even between semesters.

2. Clients design their own improvement plans with input from a CTE-ELP consultant, selecting from a menu of activities that meet their specific needs and preferences.

3. Clients select appointments for the various services that fit their own schedules.

4. Clients participate at different levels of intensity (from a few hours per month to many hours per week).

5. Clients who appreciate privacy (such as professors) can utilize services discreetly and/or remotely, opting for individual consultations, virtual meetings, and web-based software.

Services/activities include private consultations, formative assessments, conversation partnerships, practice groups, classroom observations, workshops, videotaped microteaching, pronunciation software, and referrals to outside resources. Details of each service, including learning outcomes, are shared in the Appendix. The linchpin of this individualized approach is the intake assessment—a 45-minute interview with the CTE-ELP consultants. The data garnered from this interview are used to identify the strengths and the weaknesses in the client’s English speaking proficiency. Learning outcomes are set based upon the weaknesses identified, and a path for improvement is established by selecting the services whose learning outcomes match the needs of the client. This is formalized in a document named the “Individual Improvement Plan,” which is signed by both consultant and client after they reach agreement that the activities proposed are beneficial and doable.

Student motivation is a key factor in second language acquisition. Motivation can be increased by student buy-in, which is why their contribution to their Individual Improvement Plan is essential. Whether motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic, it is ideal for services to be available at the time the student seeks them out. Students can begin participation any week of the year, rather than wait for the start of the next long semester. We have observed that participation is greatest during the breaks between semesters when clients have additional time to devote to professional development. For example, after final exams ended in May 2018 and before the fall term began in August, the CTE-ELP offered a total of three intensive workshop series (10 sessions a week). On average, each session was attended by 15 international graduate students.

New Policies for ITAs

Readiness for a teaching assistantship is now determined by a score on a recognized oral language test (the speaking section of the TOEFL, IELTS, PTE, or the in-house English Language Proficiency Exam). International graduate students who have demonstrated strong oral proficiency on one of the aforementioned tests are eligible for teaching assistantships. Those whose scores have not been submitted to the university within two years of taking one of the recognized exams, or who earned a score below the proficiency threshold, are ineligible to teach. Those who demonstrated borderline proficiency (e.g., a score of 23–25 on the speaking portion of the TOEFL or a 7.0–7.5 on the speaking portion of the IELTS) are permitted to teach with the following conditions:

• They begin participation in the CTE-ELP at the beginning of the semester;

• They participate 5 hours/week; and

• They retake one of the recognized exams until they demonstrate strong proficiency, at which point their obligation is met.

For conditionally appointed teaching assistants (TAs), the Individual Improvement Plan is binding. All other CTE-ELP clients are permitted to participate to whatever degree of intensity they wish; their adherence to their Individual Improvement Plans is voluntary.

Because the aforementioned tests are not administered by the CTE-ELP, CTE-ELP consultants are freed up to be supporters and allies, not gate-keepers. They administer diagnostic and formative assessments, but not summative assessments. No longer is a grade of A or B in an IEP advanced oral skills course recognized by the university as evidence of preparedness for a TA position. While this change in policy has brought increased trust in the relationship between ITA trainer and trainee, it also has one disadvantage worth noting: Graduate students with extreme test anxiety can no longer demonstrate their oral proficiency across a semester via several low-stakes assessments but must do so in one high-stakes assessment.

Measuring the Effectiveness of the Program Redesign

There are several indications that this new ITA program model is effective, not the least of which is the number of clients served.

Numbers Served

This redesign has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of participants and has altered their timeline for seeking out language support services. In the past, ITA training was predominantly preservice due in part to the funding structure, and those who participated did so in immediate anticipation of a TA appointment rather than well in advance of it. Prior to paying tuition for a language training course, individuals and departments wanted to be sure that a TA appointment was guaranteed and imminent. And few students who had already met the minimum English language proficiency threshold set by the university sought out additional language training because it was restrictive both in terms of cost and time. The fee-based fiscal structure of our current program combined with its flexibility have resulted in a significant uptick in those seeking out language training. And many do so well in advance of any potential TA appointment, giving them the precious time that they need to develop their language skills long before they enter a classroom as a TA. Many who have already met the minimum English language proficiency threshold participate as well, seeking out additional professional development to bolster skills and confidence. Now ITA training is both preservice and in-service.

In the past, approximately 70 prospective ITAs per year would enroll in a 15-week IEP course. By way of contrast, in the first year of the new program’s operation, 197 students completed an intake assessment, 170 of whom drafted an Individual Improvement Plan. And, while participants have the opportunity to get roughly the same amount of practice in our new program as in our course-based model, in the current semester only about 30 students are served intensively (5 hours/week). Many, many more than that utilize services in a less-intensive manner. From late August 2017 to late August 2018, the CTE-ELP made 1,600 additional contacts (touchpoints, not unique individuals), many of which were with lower intensity users (i.e., ≤1 hour/week). A handful of professors, postdocs, and visiting scholars have been served as well.

The personalized nature of the new program makes it challenging to assess its effectiveness, since each client’s Individual Improvement Plan is unique. Some measures that we have used thus far include:

1. Rate of CTE-ELP clients who began participation with borderline proficiency and progressed to strong proficiency;

2. Comparison of the performance of a group that utilizes a specific service in the program (e.g. the practice group) with that of a control group that does not;

3. Self-reporting, gleaned from clients’ survey responses (from August 2017–March 2018)

Conditionally Appointed ITAs Achieving Scores of Strong Proficiency

Early data show that all ITAs with conditional appointments (i.e., with borderline oral proficiency at the time of hiring) who followed the conditions of their appointment (by beginning participation in the CTE-ELP early in the semester, engaging in 5 hours/week of recommended services, and retesting when advised) succeeded in demonstrating proficiency by the end of the semester, joining the pool of qualified TAs eligible for teaching assistantships without conditions.

Prospective ITAs With vs. Without CTE-ELP Programming

The effectiveness of one CTE-ELP service, the practice group, was tentatively confirmed in August 2018 when, at the request of their department, a newly arrived cohort of international graduate students participated in an intensive weeklong workshop series prior to taking the English Language Proficiency Exam. This 10-session series covered high-impact pronunciation topics (suprasegmental features of speech), active learning techniques, pragmatic skills for intercultural interactions, functional vocabulary for instructors, university culture, and opportunities for microteaching practice with feedback. This cohort was comparable to their predecessors in terms of TOEFL speaking scores, but they were the first cohort to receive this customized training. The number of students in this cohort who had met language proficiency requirements by the first class day this year was about 15% greater when compared against the previous 5 years.

Self-Reporting by Clients

Added to these measures, anonymous survey responses provide encouragement that the CTE-ELP services are deemed worth the client’s time and beneficial to their language development.

• Clients who had participated in the intake assessment and intake follow-up were asked if they would recommend this service to a friend. Of 67 anonymous responses, all 67 chose Agree or Strongly Agree. Participants indicated that they would do so because they (1) received specific information about their speaking skills from trained linguists, (2) had the opportunity to create a path to improve their spoken English proficiency, and (3) had noticed improvement in their speaking skills since participating.

• Similarly, the conversation partnership service received positive responses to its survey. All respondents (n = 30) indicated that they (1) felt they now understand their partner’s way of speaking better, (2) had learned ways of modifying their own speech in intercultural interactions, and (3) would recommend Conversation Partners to a friend.

• And all respondents (n = 42) who had participated in a practice group indicated that they Agree or Strongly Agree that they would recommend practice groups to a friend. Participants wrote that they would do so because they (1) felt a sense of connectedness to other internationals, (2) appreciated the interactions they had with undergraduates, (3) increased their confidence, and (4) learned a lot about speaking and culture from the experience. Note that, in an otherwise individualized program, this service, with its weekly group meetings, can meet the need for peer support—a key benefit of the course-based approach.

Adapting to Increased Volume

CTE-ELP funding coming from the international student fee is relatively stable from year to year, unlike previous years when funding came entirely from tuition for IEP courses and suffered the vicissitudes of enrollment like other IEPs. With an obligation to every international graduate student who has paid the international student fee, the CTE-ELP ensures that there are always services available. The CTE-ELP lab (a computer lab with pronunciation software, language learning exercises, and high-quality headsets/microphones) is staffed by a student worker and open during most business hours. Workshops on topics such as “Effective Communication in an International Setting” appeal to international and domestic students alike.

To serve so many (approximately 4,500 international graduate students at our flagship campus), the CTE-ELP must necessarily focus on those pronunciation topics that have the greatest impact on comprehensibility. Thanks to research by others in the field (Derwing, Munro, & Wiebe, 1998; Grant, 2014; Gorsuch, Meyers, Pickering, & Griffee, 2013), we prioritize word stress, linking, phrasing, and prominence (discourse intonation). Other linguistic topics include functional vocabulary and pragmatics, always with a view to communicative competence in instructional interactions.

To further reduce the comprehension gap, we also address, albeit to a lesser extent, the listening skills of native speakers of North American English, addressing both language differences and language attitudes. In a future article, we hope to discuss the roles of domestic undergraduates who are employed by and volunteer in our program as well as our support of diversity initiatives on campus. For now, suffice it to say that we see communication as a two-way street in which participants speak and listen. Native speakers of North American English who aspire to succeed in international contexts benefit greatly from time invested in improving their intercultural interactions. As such, the presence of internationals on American campuses is a wonderful opportunity, especially for those who have had limited access to nonmainstream varieties of English and find it difficult to tune their ear to unfamiliar accents. Limited as our time with ITAs is, a realistic approach to their language training must accept that native-like pronunciation is not attainable for most internationals before they enter the classroom as TAs nor is it necessary. Developing better listeners works toward the goal of enhancing classroom communication from both sides of the equation.

Conclusion

Where similar conditions exist in other universities (e.g., in the absence of an IEP), we propose this model of ITA preparation as an alternative to the course-based approach. As Gorsuch (2015) reports, some university administrators and even ITAs themselves are of the opinion that “ITA preparation courses are an obstacle to timely degree completion” (p. viii). Just as graduate students partake of programming in a university writing center (e.g., workshops and individual consultations) when they are motivated by a clear need, international graduate students who anticipate teaching in the English language can avail themselves of a linguistic service when they elect to do so, prior to and/or during a teaching assignment, when they are most motivated and therefore most primed to learn. Some educators argue that this user-centered, self-paced, and individualized approach is the future of learning (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2018). With respect to ITA language training, the verdict is not yet in, but the early signs are good.

Appendix: Services Offered by the CTE-ELP

Abbreviations: CTE-ELP = Center for Teaching Excellence - English Language Proficiency Program; ELP = English language proficiency; ITA = international teaching assistant; TA = teaching assistant.

References

Chronicle of Higher Education. (2018). The future of learning: How colleges can transform the educational experience.

Derwing, T. M., Munro, M. J., & Wiebe, G. (1998). Evidence in favor of a broad framework for pronunciation instruction. Language learning, 48(3), 393–410.

Gorsuch G. (Ed.). (2015). Talking matters: Research on talk and communication of international teaching assistants. Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.

Gorsuch, G., Meyers, C. M., Pickering, L., & Griffee, D. T. (2013. English communication for international teaching assistants (2^nd ed.). Long Grove, IL.: Waveland Press.

Grant, L. (2014). Pronunciation myths. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Schmidt, A. & Sullivan, S. (2003). Clinical training in foreign accent modification: A national survey. Contemporary issues in communication science and disorders, 30, 127-35.

Brandon Cooper provides linguistic support to international professors, teaching assistants, and graduate students as an English language proficiency consultant in Texas A&M University’s Center for Teaching Excellence. His research interests include language variation and change, and he is passionate about all things linguistic diversity.

Ginessa Lawson Payne provides linguistic support to professors, teaching assistants, and graduate students for whom English is an additional language as an English Language Proficiency Consultant in Texas A&M University’s Center for Teaching Excellence. In the past, she trained international teaching assistants at UCLA and George Mason University and rated standardized oral proficiency assessments, including the SPEAK. Her research interests are comprehensibility in L2 speech, adult second language acquisition, and multimodal strategies for communication.

Xueyan Hu is a graduate assistant in Texas A&M University’s Center for Teaching Excellence. She has taught a teaching methods course for undergraduate students at Texas A&M University. Her research interests are second language acquisition, biliteracy, and teacher education.