How does an international student deal with the GTA?

[buzer_beater]

Hello Everyone,

 

I'm a Chinese senior student, and I'm offered a GTA for my Ph.D. program in the U.S. But I have some worries about losing this opportunity, because I'm not sure whether I can speak normally in front of so many foreign students especially in non-mother tongue. I'm also worry about I can't deliver the knowledge to students clearly and interestingly, then I will be get out of the GTA list.

 

So, could you give me some advice about how should I prepare for the upcoming GTA? or can you give me some successful example of foregin Teaching Assistant?

 

Thank you very much!

Dongyu

[St Andrews Lynx]

At our university, all international TAs must take an EFL test. If you meet the basic standards of English proficiency - then you're allowed to teach. If you don't meet the English language requirements you will keep the TAship but instead do grading in your first semester rather than teaching, and take an English language class through the university to get up to the necessary standard. Then after the first semester you are assessed again. Something similar might happen at your school. 

 

There will probably be a lot of Chinese and International TA/grad students in the same position as you when you arrive. It is a steep learning curve for the people I've seen - but none of them have ever been disciplined for their language skills.

 

Most grad schools don't expect their TAs to be brilliant teachers from the day they arrive: as long as you can deliver the material, turn up on time and follow the rules laid out for you, then you'll be fine. Don't worry about being "interesting" or having a native-level fluency - those things come later. 

 

The best way to prepare for speaking English in front of others...is by speaking lots of English. Look for conversation groups, language exchange partners or tutors in China before you start your program.  

[Quantum Buckyball]

I think the easiest way to improve yourself is watching a lot of foreign TV shows or movies (US or UK)...with English subtitles  , at least this was what I did and I thought it was very useful and convenient 

Edited March 6, 2014 by Quantum Buckyball

[arefin]

Newspapers, news shows, discussions, documentaries - like the BBC, CNN, Discovery etc. Radio. Movies and shows are good but too much colloquialism or slang could be a problem. I mean that's how some of us in India get it right, although some of us have studied English literature throughout school. I don't think grammar books or "How to speak" books ever help. You've got to read, read and read and then converse. And fear of public speaking - well that's a different matter

 

I think you could help yourself by immersing yourself in such content. Just observe closely as to how they speak, enunciate, pay attention to the diction though "accent" per se, is not the issue. Your writing looks quite good, so I think it will not be difficult for you. Assuming you begin in September this year, you've got plenty of time. Good luck

[overworkedta]

Our TA's have to take two courses (a speaking and culture course and a composition course) before they can teach.  I have two friends that have done that process and RA'ed in the meantime.  It hasn't been bad for them.  They both said the first semester was frustrating but you just have to deal with it and get over the fear.  Immersing yourself in it is the only way to get better for a lot of people.  In the meantime, though, with my French, watching TV and reading french newspapers has been helpful. It's still frustrating using technical language but you learn it over time.

 

Do you know what duties you've been assigned?  Our department doesn't give labs or independent sections to first year, first semester students and most of our international students don't teach independently until year 5 or year 4 at the earliest.  So, most of their duties are regarding grading or just helping a prof in lecture.  They don't have to give their own lectures, basically.

[buzer_beater]

Thanks a lot for everyone's replies, and apologize that I don't know how to express my thanks to each of you.

 

I notice that most of you mention that I should listen to more English programs, actually I listen to VOA and watch a lot of U.S. drama series everyday. But most of the time, I still need to depend on the subtitles, especially the teleplay, because they speak too fast and no more to say the slangs. What's more, because of the limits of my univ, I don't find too much students to talk with me in English, so I don't have many time to practice my English,

 

So could you give me some advice about my hearing and how can I find someone to talk with me? By using the Facebook?

[overworkedta]

Facebook is good.  Also, if you could get a skype buddy who would be willing to chat with you regularly, that may help, too.  Think of it as like a verbal pen pal.

[danieleWrites]

I would add one other thing to the "practice English" advice so far. Find out what courses you'll be expected to TA in, find out the books they use, buy the books, and then read them out loud. It's one thing to use mass media for English skills, but it's another thing altogether to use terminology and phrasing from your field. If possible, see if you can find online videos that offer instruction in your field or a related field. Coursera, Khan academy, education-portal, other MOOCs. There are tons of free, online course offerings in the US. Youtube, if you can access it, has practically everything. Since you're not trying to learn the subject, but rather how to use English to speak about the subject, it doesn't matter if the people giving video/audio lessons are trustworthy teachers, or offering lessons that will advance you in your field. Chinese is a tonal language while English is an analytic language (Chinese uses tone to indicate whether ma means mother or horse; English uses the position of the word in the sentence). This kind of all boils down to pronunciation and syntax (how to say it and where it goes in a sentence). Reading stuff in your field out loud will help you work out pronunciation and phrasing before your first day of class. I can't imagine trying to figure out how to say metamafic in another language without a lot of practice. If the book is out of reach, and you're still able to access journal articles in English, you can read them out loud, as well.

In my previous university, a few international students taught composition courses. While they wrote better English than the average American, they didn't speak English well. Sometimes, their accents were too thick for students to understand. I know this because students complained a lot.

Anyway. Here's the thing. Your ability to GTA in the US has nothing to do with your native country, beyond your ability to express the concepts in English, understand questions and respond to them, in English. Sure, students will complain about your English skills. If you were American, they'd complain about your voice, your fashion sense, the place you stand/sit during class, how often you use the book in class, whether or not you use a pencil or a pen, your religions, your politics, your state residency, your facial features, your (insert anything and everything here).

You've been offered the GTA. Accept it! What's the worst that can happen? You fail at GTAing and don't get it renewed by the department. A number of universities offer TAships in the language department to international students whatever their department. My previous institution offered Asian languages, but only when an international student from Asia could be enticed to teach them. Anyway, good teaching is about knowing your stuff, having confidence in yourself, and having concern for and patience with students. Yeah, they're going to say and think things that are hurtful, but it won't be because you're from China. They do that with everyone. Even the most beloved teacher on campus gets some student hate. Mostly, you'll never hear it.

Edited March 9, 2014 by danieleWrites

[reinhard]

Watch one of those MIT recitation videos. See if you can do as good or better than them. Learn from them.

[maelia8]

I recommend joining LiveMocha, a language learning chat site that allows you to connect with native speakers over video or audio chat and practice speaking with them. It's a great way to get over being nervous or uncomfortable when talking to native speakers!

[spunky]

i kinda have to say i'm both impressed (and a little bit jealous) of all the prep work that other universities give to new TAs.

 

i'm also a foreign student and when i first TA'd i just got thrown into the mix. no prep work, no classes, no nothing. it was basically a "we don't have enough people to teach this. so off you go. see you by the end of the semester"

 

it was... stressful

Edited June 13, 2014 by spunky

[DeleteMePlease]

There is a mandatory prep course for all international TAs at my institution. I have to arrive a few weeks prior to classes for it but it may be worth it.

 

Honestly, I don't expect to do much beyond grading assignments in my first semester though.

Edited June 19, 2014 by GermanStudent

[koyote]

There is a mandatory prep course for all international TAs at my institution. I have to arrive a few weeks prior to classes for it but it may be worth it.

 

Honestly, I don't expect to do much beyond grading assignments in my first semester though.

Yeah I was thinking exactly the same thing(international TA at Cornell too). At least they will give us a stipend for attending the seminar

Edited June 20, 2014 by koyote

[acrosschemworld]

Very good advice from danieleWrites. I much second listening to online videos about the material you'll have to teach so you can hear the pronunciation. Make sure you take the time to pronounce key terms so the first time you pronounce them will not be in front of your students. The first few times you may find it helpful to give a practice talk of whatever you have to present in front of the students.

 

One other thing I did in my second semester as a TA was to write a lot of handouts. That way students had important things in writing and my accent was much less of a problem. I recommend doing that if you are worried about your accent. Another advantage of handouts is that you can write them ahead of time when you are less busy, and if you teach the same thing twice, you will have to do even less preparation because you already have the handouts.

 

Our department handled TA's like spunky's: just let us deal with it. I later learned that there was a 2-semester class offered by the Education Department  for international TA's in all departments, that addressed things like English, accent, but also cross-cultural things that international TA's have problems with. Unfortunately it usually coincided with required classes in my department so nobody usually in chemistry took it, but maybe I could have done something to accommodate it in my schedule if I knew in advance about it. I recommend to check with your school if there are such resources that are helpful, but not required.