ITAIS Newsletter - May 2014 (Plain Text Version)
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In this issue: |
Articles A SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES TO HELP INTERNATIONAL TEACHING ASSISTANTS BUILD THEIR LANGUAGE SKILLS: PART 1
Professionals who work with international teaching assistants (ITAs) are always looking for new activities to use with students. ITAs have a variety of goals and needs in order to work effectively as teaching assistants and instructors: They need to improve their speaking skills, but at the same time they need to build their familiarity with the United States, their new universities, and the expectations of their prospective students. There are many different approaches and activities being used to help ITAs develop their linguistic, cultural, and pedagogical skills. This article is based on the activities we collected at TESOL 2014 in Portland, Oregon at a workshop designed to share the wealth of practices in ITA education. In the session, the organizers were specifically looking at ITA curricula from the standpoint of three major categories: pronunciation and grammar; vocabulary, fluency, and listening; and pedagogy. This article focuses on activities from the first two broad language categories. Pedagogy will be featured in the second installment of this article, slated for the next issue of the ITAIS Newsletter. Pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and listening are the main linguistic skills that ITA professionals target, either directly or indirectly, in their courses. Pronunciation and grammar tend to be more discrete and related to accuracy, while vocabulary, fluency, and listening tend to be broader, more holistic features of language. Here we share a brief description and some detail on each category. For anyone interested in developing ITA curricula, a careful consideration of the balance of skills you want students to learn and overall goals of your program is needed. Each of these categories on its own could be one class; the beauty of ITA curricula is how they are balanced and integrated.
Pronunciation First, let’s explore some major trends in the teaching of pronunciation. Although all instructors agree that the needs of new ITAs encompass much more than a change in pronunciation, it is a salient feature for undergraduate students, and is often the linguistic feature that will help ITAs improve their comprehensibility most noticeably. By pronunciation, ITA instructors mean the suprasegmental aspects as well as (or even more than) the segmental aspects of language. Targeting suprasegmentals, or the overall rhythm and intonation of speech, is a primary point of focus in most ITA courses. The pronunciation textbooks used in the programs represented in the workshop are:
Various kinesthetic activities, which include clapping rhythms, using rubber bands to show syllable length, and showing jaw openness using markers have come from some of these textbooks and are also used on their own. Programs are also using software to assist in recording, comparing, and analyzing pronunciation. Praat, Carnegie Speech Software, and American Speech Sounds for Academics were discussed in the session. Other online resources that can be used for mirroring, imitation, watching mouth movements, and so on, include:
In conjunction with consideration of both mirroring and online resources, many programs include audio journal assignments in which students record themselves speaking and then analyze their own speech. While useful for pronunciation (for example if a student listens to, records, and practices key terms and sentences from his academic field), audio journals can also be useful to help students monitor their grammar, fluency, and vocabulary development. Pronunciation can also be paired with grammar when considering the pronunciation of reductions, and -ed and -s endings. A deeper consideration of how ITA programs treat grammar is relevant.
Grammar While most ITA programs don’t teach grammar explicitly, there is agreement that grammatical accuracy should be addressed with individual students if it is interfering with comprehensibility. Generally, students in ITA courses already know the grammar rules; they just need to be reminded to use them properly. Discussions of grammar also arise in discussions of informal vs. formal language, different phrasing options, and general pragmatics. There are many activities that help students consider various structures and uses of language. Simply brainstorming with a class different ways to say something is a great way to begin. An instructor could target and analyze grammar functions based on particular types of presentations and activities (i.e., persuasive speech or debate). Some specific functions to consider are: storytelling and narration to work on verb tenses, description to work on order of adjectives, or use of modals to be polite. The list is endless. As mentioned before, audio journals can be very useful to help a student monitor his or her grammatical accuracy. Having students transcribe and correct errors from various production assignments or correct their peers can also be helpful. There are various online tools that can be used to facilitate this process, such asVideoANT. Some programs help students notice the difference in structure and usage between English and their native languages, using resources like EnglishDaily.com. Finally, a great suggestion for how to help students use the language structures they will need as teaching assistants is to ask them to consider themselves as “translators” between the textbook and the students. This requires them to practice saying things in shorter, simpler sentences; use analogies and examples; and pay attention to transitional words and phrases.
Vocabulary As with grammar, most ITA programs don’t teach vocabulary explicitly. The idea is that students need to activate the vocabulary they may have already learned in a written context and augment it with common words and phrases used frequently in the graduate school environment. A general topic that needs elaboration (but is good to keep in mind) is having students learn “lexical bundles.” In a more traditional vein, a list of some useful ideas follows:
Fluency A broad goal for ITAs, and any language learner, is to develop fluency. Once again, audio journals can be quite useful here. For example, students could record themselves for 3 minutes each day on a topic of their choice or as assigned by their instructor. This can also be done in class with everyday topics where the students are asked to explain and elaborate on the issue. To help with fluency, clarity, and conciseness, have students practice giving a talk three times: the first time for 5 minutes, then 2 minutes, then 1 minute, with time for feedback provided after the first two times. Another fun way to get students talking more is to have student and undergrads do role plays to practice the language of specific situations (e.g., departmental reception, cocktail party, office hours). A motivating activity for those students who are focused on their research, and of course a good fluency activity for all, is for students to do poster sessions for other ESL teachers, graduate administrators, or any audience of at least three listeners. Students explain the poster several times, improving their delivery each time. A follow-up to the poster session is to have students then give a talk about the topic. Students can practice giving their talk to different audiences, and it can be particularly helpful to have them work with a novice audience. For example, one program is able to have ITAs talk about their research to high school students. Summarizing or paraphrasing is also a good way to work on fluency. Some sources that were suggested are:
Another way to use summarizing or restating is in small group discussions where students choose a topic and lead a discussion. In this activity, while increasing their fluency in response to the contributions to the discussion, they also work on listening and accuracy by restating what another student has said.
Listening Through all of these activities we can see a clear connection with listening skills. Listening is also not usually taught explicitly in ITA programs, but comes up in conjunction with the skills mentioned above. Summarizing oral material, while clearly a fluency and vocabulary building activity, also demands careful listening. In addition to the listening skills necessary for the above tasks, listening can be focused with such additions as having students notice various elements, such as stress, phrases, lexical bundles, idiomatic phrases, and transitions. A favorite website for listening to quick and idiomatic speech is Common Student Questions on the University of Minnesota’s website. In conclusion, it is clear that ITA professionals are using a variety of methods and activities to help students develop the skills that will carry them through their graduate programs (through development of their communication skills, both for teaching and scholarship) and into their future careers. ITA programs are providing strategies that launch students into graduate school and onto the path of being lifetime language learners; many of the activities shared here are ones that ITAs can do on their own as they continue to improve their language. It is also apparent that some of these skills are well connected with general professional development activities for all graduate students, not just for international students who are working to improve their English. In our next installment, we will share what we learned from the discussion of activities that programs use to target pedagogy, and how these linguistic skills can be developed in conjunction with the specific pedagogical environment for which an ITA is preparing. We also plan to share more detailed descriptions of some of the key activities mentioned here. Stay tuned! Barbara Beers works in the Center for Teaching and Learning at
the University of Minnesota in the International Faculty and TA Program,
providing instruction and consultation in English language and
classroom communication strategies to nonnative-English-speaking
faculty, teaching assistants, and prospective teaching
assistants.
Pamela Pollock currently works as an assistant director at the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University, where she teaches classes and develops programming for international graduate students, and oversees the Teaching Certificate Program (an important professional development initiative for graduate students). |
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