How Global Launch helps international graduate students become teaching assistants at ASU
Dr. Emilia Gracia touches base with former students on how ITA and SPEAK test have helped them in their assistant teaching
Graduate students often seek part-time work as teaching assistants to pay for their graduate education and/or to get university-level teaching experience. Various graduate programs at ASU provide this option for students, and these opportunities are extended to international students as well.
When international graduate students from non-English speaking countries apply for a graduate teaching assistantship, they are required to demonstrate high oral proficiency in English before they are fully certified to teach. Many international students are admitted into ASU graduate programs with the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores that are fairly high in areas such as reading, writing, listening, and grammar, but their speaking scores may be lower. When their speaking scores are relatively low, they have two options for demonstrating oral proficiency: (1) The SPEAK test, or the (2) ITA course.
What are the SPEAK test and International Teaching Assistant (ITA) training?
The SPEAK test is an oral proficiency exam measuring verbal communication in spoken English for non-native English speakers. Most students attempt the SPEAK test first, however some do not get the required score needed to pass. Students who do not get their desired score on the SPEAK test may choose to take Global Launch’s International Teaching Assistant (ITA) course.
This is a one-semester course aimed at helping international graduate students improve their pronunciation so they can reach their full potential in oral comprehensibility and receive teacher training. At the end of the course, students perform a micro-teaching demonstration and are evaluated by a panel of English as a Second Language (ESL) educators. If students do not get full certification after being evaluated, they may take the ITA course the following semester and be evaluated again.
For many graduate students, fitting an extra class into their schedules can be challenging. However, Global Launch ITA instructor Dr. Gracia makes sure the course content is meaningful and relevant to students, giving them plenty of opportunities to practice teaching and get feedback on their language use and teaching strategies. Many students leave the course feeling empowered and well-prepared to impart classes at a large, public university like ASU.
How have the SPEAK test and ITA course helped students?
Dr. Gracia followed up with a couple of her former ITA students, Dalia Cabada and Sandra Freda Wood, who are now working as teaching assistants in their respective departments to ask them how things were going.
“I learned a lot from the ITA course. All of the lectures in the course have helped me during my office hours as a teaching assistant. I gained confidence in speaking, not only for the office hours I teach but also in the classes I am taking. In the ITA course we practiced speaking a lot through some interesting exercises, some of them mainly focused on teaching and others on other interesting and fun topics,” said Canada, a PhD student in Applied Mathematics, when asked what she gained from taking the ITA course.
“The frequent practice in the course helped me to have more confidence when I speak in English. Also, I gained more knowledge about classroom vocabulary and tips about how to suggest something to the students. These have been very useful tools because I have to check what students are doing in the Matlab and I constantly have to give them ideas about how to do it.”
When asked how her students were responding to her teaching, Cabada commented: “They are responding well; it can be seen because there are many students coming to the office hours. They ask questions and get their answers and then come back to ask more questions about other assignments.”
“I learned how to make varied ways of engaging with my students, both in person and other means of communication. I am using the information I learned in class to prepare lessons and activities for my students,” said Freda Wood, a PhD student in Communication.
From areas of math to communication, a range of positive outcomes are observed and apparent among former ITA students. Having a solid understanding of teaching methods and principles of practice, as well as some hands-on experience in training, Global Launch’s ITA course prepares international graduate students for success and ease in their TA assignments.
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