Accents In The Classroom by Steve Sullivan Junior biology student Molly Ryan sits in her physics recitation class thinking to herself, "How can I understand the concepts when I'm not even sure what he's saying?" The "he" Ryan refers to is the international teaching assistant leading the recitation. Ph.D. student Washington Braida stands in front of a class of entry-level civil engineering students. His students are Midwesterners mostly, from places like Ankeny and Cedar Rapids. Braida's home is Uruguay, his native tongue Spanish. "I know that I know much, much more than them," Braida says. "But you have extra pressure to teach it in another language. I must find out how to deliver the information in the best way." Ryan and Braida's individual situations illustrate only two sides of the complex issue surrounding international teaching assistants on U.S. campuses. It's an issue involving many people: students struggling to understand complicated subjects; international graduate students who know their subject matter inside out, but are less familiar with American speech and classrooms; faculty and administrators who must provide the best education possible not only to undergraduates but to TAs themselves, who will be tomorrow's professors; and, finally, parents who expect a good return on tuition dollars. TAS VITAL TO RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES Teaching assistants are an important part of all major research universities, said George Karas, associate dean of the Graduate College. "The university depends on TAs to help fulfill its teaching mission. The experience also is a valuable professional development activity for many graduate students who plan to pursue teaching careers." Although Iowa State has far fewer TAs than its peer institutions, TAs still make a substantial contribution to the teaching effort. In March 1994, Iowa State had 720 TAs on the payroll, the equivalent of approximately 330 full-time employees. English is the native tongue for about two-thirds of ISU's TAs. The remaining third, international TAs (sometimes called ITAs), fill important needs at ISU, Karas said. "In certain fields, there are not enough native English speakers graduating at the undergraduate level to meet the requirements that departments around the country have for teaching assistants," he said. "So they select very bright, capable students from other countries, some who do not have English as a native language or who may have accents to their language." At Iowa State, science and math departments are the biggest users of international TAs, with chemistry leading the pack. Of 78 TAs in the chemistry department, 41 are international students. Iowa State's general chemistry program illustrates the need for TAs. Approximately 3,500 students per semester enroll in general chemistry courses. This semester, professor and general chemistry program coordinator Tom Greenbowe teaches 480 students in two large lecture courses. The large lectures are accompanied by recitation sessions, during which homework assignments are reviewed, questions are answered and quizzes given. Greenbowe's classes are broken into 15 to 20 recitation sessions, with an average of 20 students in each. That's where TAs come in. "A professor cannot cover both the lecture and recitation. We rely on TAs for recitations," he said. "And since fewer and fewer American students are willing to go on to earn advanced degrees in technical subjects like chemistry, we have to open up our program to international students who have the grades and chemistry degrees to get into the graduate program." THE MIDWESTERN EAR Students invariably have complaints about any instructor, whether an American teaching assistant or full-time professor. But international TAs face specific challenges because of potential language barriers and little exposure to the learning styles of American students. The problems are compounded at many Midwestern institutions, where students have had minimal exposure to people from other parts of the world. "I find that students from the Midwest, in general, have a lower tolerance for accents than students from the East Coast," Greenbow said. "That is not a condemnation, but a direct observation." The exposure Iowa State students have to international TAs during their college careers is extensive. Seventy-two percent of the more than 1,800 undergraduates who participated in a fall 1993 survey had taken courses with one or more international TAs. The survey was conducted by Barbara Plakans, coordinator of the SPEAK/TEACH program, a language testing and teaching program. All international TAs must pass the tests before entering the classroom. Approximately 60 percent of the students who reported taking courses with international TAs indicated they had experienced a problem with a teaching assistant. Among the undergraduates' common complaints were that international TAs had difficulty with pronunciation or intonation patterns and had trouble understanding students' questions. According to Plakans' study, only about 25 percent of those who had problems with international TAs talked to the teaching assistant or the responsible faculty supervisor, or transferred to other lab or recitation sessions. Most simply learned the class material on their own or with a friend. "In some cases, it is probably adequate that they learn the material on their own," Plakans said. "But they need to let the ITA know they are having a problem. ITAs want to know. They very much need the feedback from students." PARENT CONCERN Parent concern about international teaching assistants is evident during orientation programs. "There is a wide range of problems we talk to parents about, but when the issue is their student and an international teaching assistant, that's when they are the most upset," said Ardys Ulrichson, director of orientation. However, few parents contacted during a parent-calling project in the fall of 1993 mentioned problems with international TAs. Parents of 3,565 new ISU students were contacted to see how school was going for their children. Only 1 percent--parents of 47 students--said their children had reported concerns about international teaching assistants. In a similar student-calling effort, 3,493 new students were contacted last fall and only 12 expressed concern about international TAs. Addressing concerns about international TAs is an on-going process at Iowa State. Through summer orientations and other means, officials are working to keep students and parents informed about the role and importance of teaching assistants (American and international) at Iowa State, and to make them aware of options available to students who encounter problems with TAs. "We've been dealing with the international TA issue for a long time and we address it very openly and straightforwardly," Ulrichson said. "We think it is important that families understand the role of teaching assistants in the university process, that it is indeed training ground for future professors. "We understand parents want the best education possible for their students and we want them to know the options students have if they have a problem with an ITA." A MODEL PROGRAM Meanwhile, university officials continue to seek ways to improve training of international TAs. Chemistry often is cited as a model for training and monitoring international TAs, Plakans said. All chemistry TAs, including U.S. students, must practice teaching in front of peers in sessions that are videotaped and critiqued, and undertake a series of readings and other assignments on teaching fundamentals. International TAs participate in these activities and in a special training program that starts three weeks before the academic year. "We work them early on to acclimate them to language, teaching assignments, teaching styles and policies and procedures, especially lab safety procedures," Greenbowe said. "We also want to get them adjusted to American slang and pronunciation of technical terms they will be talking to students about." The chemistry international TA also must spend three evenings buying assigned foods in a grocery store and comparison shopping at a mall. The experiences allow international TAs to interact with store clerks and cashiers and gain insight into American culture. Greenbowe visits recitation and lab sessions led by new teaching assistants each semester. And chemistry students do mid-term and end-of-year evaluations of TAs. "The mid-term evaluations provide us with indications of any problems a TA might be having," Greenbowe said. "I only know of two instances in the last five years in which a TA had to be reassigned because of problems." Despite extensive preparation and monitoring, some students in general chemistry may have problems with an international TA. Like most departments, the chemistry department allows students to switch recitation or lab sessions if they are having trouble with the person leading the session. "It isn't exclusively an ITA issue," Greenbowe said. "Some students will hear from friends that another TA does things in a manner that they like better. We encourage students to tell TAs what their needs are." AWARD-WINNING TEACHERS International TAs contribute much to the campus, Plakans said. They are consistently among the recipients of the graduate college's annual teaching and research assistant awards. Some are excellent teachers, she added. "I've heard undergraduates say that an international TA is the best teacher they have ever had at the university." They bring not only knowledge and expertise, Plakans said, "but the students get the extra bonus of learning about another country and culture." "I tell students," Greenbowe said, "that if they are going to work for a large company on the East or West Coast, or even in the South now, that they need to be attuned to working and speaking with people who have accents and who might have different views of the world than they do." _____ contact: Steve Sullivan, News Service, (515) 294-3720 updated: 03-08-95