TA for international applicants

[Vivy]

Hi!

I'm an international applicant for fall 2012. I have some questions about a TA duties, expecially if he is a non-native English speaker. Are non-native speakers supposed to give lectures as native speakers? Or they have other kinds of responsibilities ? Will someone explain a TA what he is supposed to do?I mean..what he has to explain in class and how to do that, how to interact with students ecc...

I'm really excited about teaching, but since I don't have much experience and English is not my first language, I'd like to know what I'm going to meet there. For example I suppose that also students behaviour in class could be different from country to country, and I want to be prepared in order to really help students.

Maybe someone in this forum had (or still have) an international grad student as TA and can tell me his impression! ;-)

[emmm]

I have never TA'd, but I taught community college part-time for a while. English is my first language, but here are some things I noticed:

-You must always be prepared (over-prepared is better). If you run out of topics to discuss, do not dismiss the class early. They may like it, but when they fail to do well, it will be considered YOUR fault. Always have more material that you are prepared to discuss than you think you need.

-If you have any sort of accent, this will be the reason that students were not able to succeed in your class. Whether you are difficult to understand or not, be prepared for this.

-If you try to get class participation during your sessions, you may have to work really hard. Many students are accustomed to sitting in class and resist having to do anything active, but others seemed to enjoy having a chance to do more than listen to a lecture. This seemed to vary class-to-class.

-Most students will be fine (I really enjoyed teaching), but there will inevitably be a few every term who refuse to accept any responsibility for anything. Don't give them an easy way to shift the blame for their failures onto you.

-Your experience may be different, but you may notice a lower level of respect from some students than you are accustomed to seeing. Some students may behave as though you are there to serve them, since they pay tuition (and, consequently, your salary -- or so they think).

-Return assignments promptly. Almost ALL students have very little patience to wait for graded work to be returned.

It is hard for me to say what you will need to do as a TA, as this varies from school to school. Some TAs help run lab sections, some just grade assignments, some lead recitation sections, and some actually teach entire classes. Some have to hold office hours in addition to their other responsibilities.

Depending on what school you're going to, if you are teaching non-majors, be prepared for some students with very weak math skills. You may need to help students get more comfortable with simple algebra.

[runonsentence]

If you're awarded a TAship as an international applicant, I don't think responsibilities will differ from those of the native-English TAs. (At least, I've never heard of such a thing at my own university.) If they think you're qualified enough to be a TA, then I'm sure they'll award you the same job they're giving to any other student.

The previous poster is right in saying that TA duties vary. In my discipline (and English as a whole), for instance, most TAs teach their own sections with full instruction responsibility. In other disciplines, TAs more often serve as graders for a large section, or run break-out sessions or lab groups. And in addition to varying by discipline, duties vary by school, as well. You'll have to look into the TA duties offered at the programs you're applying to (usually this can be found on the program website in the "funding" section).

[ktel]

In my discipline most TAs do grading (with office hours) or run a lab or tutorial section. They very, very rarely teach a class. Your language difficulties will be less of a problem if you're simply grading, but running a lab/tutorial could prove more challenging. I got very used to having foreign TAs and professors during my undergrad, you just adjust to the accent eventually.

[fuzzylogician]

I've never heard of a school that has different assignments for native speakers and non-native speakers. If your program thinks you're good enough to TA, trust them and take the position. If you could wait a semester before you start TAing, I think you'll find that within a few weeks you fluency will improve dramatically, even if you had very little experience with English beforehand. Just make a decision not to be embarrassed about having an accent or making a mistake and your life will be a whole lot easier. I've taught in two languages that are not my native language. It's difficult but as long as your accent is understandable and you make an effort to be clear I think you'll find that your audience will be patient too. If you think some material will be especially difficult to teach, it may be useful to prepare handouts or slides so your class will have an easier time following what you are saying. Also, the teaching center at your school may provide tutorials and could give you advice specific to your situation; and there are also a number of threads with good advice here in the forum. Mostly teaching is just teaching, really, and I can't think of too many non-native speaker specific issues.