Foreign teaching assistants 出国学习文化的差异和帮助.docxVIP

Foreign teaching assistants first test: the accentUniversities are responding to a fresh wave of complaints about the speaking abilities of TAsBy?Mark Clayton,?Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor?/ September 5, 2000At the University of Missouri at Columbia, frustrated business major Douglas Dudenhoeffer once tape-recorded a mathematics lecture so he could prove to others how hard it was to decipher his instructors thick accent.At Northeastern University in Boston, Peter Smith, a senior, sometimes finds himself stressed out if an international teaching assistant with a strong accent is helping him. It can require hours longer to figure out engineering problems, he says.And at Princeton University in New Jersey, Lisa Leslie told the campus newspaper last spring that she had difficulty understanding the international TA in her geo-sciences class.After a nearly decade-long lull, undergraduates at public and private research universities nationwide are again complaining publicly about their daily struggle to understand the heavily accented English of foreign-born teaching assistants, who help full-time faculty lead discussion groups, grade papers, and conduct labs.One mid-1980s study dubbed the phenomenon the Oh no! syndrome because of student reactions to finding out a foreign TA would be teaching them. Like many studies, it implied a communications problem, but did not document a direct impact on student learning.In fact, many like Mr. Smith and Ms. Leslie are irked at the extra effort required to learn, but concede they do not believe their grades were harmed. Others like Missouris Mr. Dudenhoeffer are less sure.Im done with all my math now, but I cant believe how bad [the language gap] was, he says. I never had any problems as far as grades go [in other courses]. But there have been many situations where my grades could have been better in math if I had a teacher that knew how to speak [English] and understand my questions.He may be right. A new report sugg