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Many international graduate students serve as teaching assistants at US universities. As teaching assistants, they carry out significant responsibilities such as leading lab sessions, grading student work, holding office hours, and proctoring exams. When these international teaching assistants (ITAs) cross national boundaries to teach at US universities, they may experience significant differences in the educational cultures. Teaching in a new educational culture offers ITAs both challenges and opportunities for growth. To better understand the experiences of this population within engineering, data were collected from seven engineering ITAs using a multiple-case study approach with each ITA representing a case. Data were collected in the form of weekly reflections and in-person interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester, at an R1 university representative of national averages in terms of international graduate student population in the US. The participant pool represented diversity in the form of nationality, gender, prior teaching experience with the same course, and engineering discipline. Data were analyzed using both a priori codes and inductive coding emerging from the data, with particular attention given to experiences specific to engineering. Based on data analysis, codebooks were developed that operationalize ITAs' experiences and navigational strategies in the context of engineering. While illuminating the intersections of ITAs' teaching experiences with their international and GTA identities, the results point to the complexity and variations in participants' experiences based on various social and contextual factors such as gender, cultural background, prior exposure to the English language, prior engagement with the course material, and interaction with the teaching team. The results point to several contributions, and implications for engineering departments and universities, faculty, and ITAs to better engage ITAs in the process of undergraduate engineering education. In terms of contributions, this study uses intersectionality, a critical framework, which accounts for the complexity of engineering ITAs' experiences to provide systematic accounts of their experiences and navigational strategies while illuminating the nuances related to social, cultural, and disciplinary identities. Implications for the engineering departments and universities include creating an educational environment that values the cultural and linguistic diversity brought by ITAs, and collaborating with ITAs to organize training programs that help ITAs strengthen their communication, workload management, and intercultural skills; those for faculty include helping ITAs manage their teaching and research requirements by allowing for flexibility in ITAs' schedules, and treating ITAs as budding colleagues by using ITAs' existing pedagogical knowledge and scaffolding them when needed; those for ITAs include resisting the institutional pressure to "fit" into the US educational norms by using the pedagogical and cultural knowledge they bring from their home countries to better support student learning, and develop students' intercultural skills; and those for undergraduate students include engaging with ITAs to learn the engineering course content and simultaneously develop intercultural competence. / Ph. D. / In light of the pivotal role played by international teaching assistants (ITAs) in undergraduate education at US universities, particularly in engineering, this research explores the experiences of engineering ITAs. When ITAs cross national boundaries to teach at US universities, they may experience differences in teaching and learning practices. These differences present both rewards and challenges to ITAs. Prior research has explored the rewards and challenges of the ITA experience more generally, but this work has not addressed the unique experiences of ITAs in engineering. Hence, it is important to understand ITAs’ experiences and navigational strategies from a viewpoint that highlights both the issues faced by ITAs and their strengths so that adequate steps can be taken to better engage them in undergraduate engineering education in the United States. To this end, this research focuses on exploring ITAs’ teaching experiences, navigational strategies, and the influence of ITAs’ social identities on their experiences. To address these research problems, data were collected from seven engineering ITAs at a large research-focused university for a semester of their teaching. Data were collected from these ITAs in the form of weekly reflections and periodic interviews. Data were analyzed using existing work on ITAs’ experiences as the starting point. The starting framework was then modified to capture the themes emerging from the data, with additional attention given to engineering specific nuances. The findings point to several contributions and implications for practice. In terms of contributions, this research illuminates the complexities of engineering ITAs’ experiences by highlighting both advantages and disadvantages experienced by them while expanding on our existing understanding of ITAs’ experiences. In terms of implications, the findings of this research suggest that efforts should be made at the institutional level to create an environment that values the cultural and linguistic diversity brought by ITAs, and collaborate with ITAs to improve their communication, workload management, and intercultural skills through focused training programs. Faculty working with ITAs should build flexibility into ITAs’ schedules so that ITAs can pay attention to other personal and professional responsibilities. Also, faculty should treat ITAs as budding colleagues by using ITAs’ pedagogical inputs and scaffolding them when needed. ITAs should use the pedagogical and cultural knowledge they bring from their home countries to better support student learning and develop students’ cross-cultural skills, and thus resist the urge to assimilate into the US educational culture. Finally, undergraduate students should see the presence of ITAs in their classrooms in positive light and engage with ITAs to learn the engineering course content and simultaneously develop intercultural skills.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of English

Six hundred sixty-six students were queried at the University of North Texas. The appropriate use of nonverbal behaviors of international and U.S. American TAs was surveyed. An eleven item questionnaire (Teacher Nonverbal Measure) was utilized. These questions were tested by an ANOVA. Data indicated that international TAs are less likely to use appropriate nonverbal behaviors than U.S. American TAs. Thus, it is possible to assume that international TAs are more likely to be perceived as using inappropriate nonverbal behaviors than U.S. American TAs. Also, communication competence was investigated. The Communication Skill Rating Scale was utilized and tested by ANOVA. Results indicate that international TAs are viewed as significantly less competent than U.S. American TAs.

The purposes of this study were to determine whether differences existed between the communication styles and teaching effectiveness, respectively, of native and non-native teaching fellows, as perceived by their undergraduate students. In addition, the study sought to determine whether a positive correlation existed between the final grades and the communication styles and teaching effectiveness, respectively, of native and non-native teaching fellows as perceived by their undergraduate students. In order to carry out the purposes of this study, six hypotheses were tested concerning the perception of native and non-native undergraduate students toward the communication style and teaching effectiveness of teaching fellows in North Texas State University.

This study measures the effect of a model of explicit instruction (EMIT) on the: 1) physics graduate teaching assistants’ adherence to reformed teaching methods, 2) impact of the instructional model on GTAs’ beliefs about the nature of physics and physics problem solving and 3) undergraduate physics students’ understanding and performance in an introductory calculus-based physics course. Methods included explicit modeling for the treatment group GTAs of the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) and assessment of treatment and control GTAs and their students throughout the semester. Students’ understanding was measured using the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and Flash-mediated Force and Motion Concept Inventory (FM2CA). Students were surveyed about performance of GTAs using the Student Survey (SS). Results indicated changes were tied to individual GTAs’ beliefs about the nature of physics. Student conceptual understanding reflected a two-fold Hake gain compared to the control group. General application of the EMIT model presupposes explicit instruction of the model for GTAs.

This study measures the effect of a model of explicit instruction (EMIT) on the: 1) physics graduate teaching assistants’ adherence to reformed teaching methods, 2) impact of the instructional model on GTAs’ beliefs about the nature of physics and physics problem solving and 3) undergraduate physics students’ understanding and performance in an introductory calculus-based physics course. Methods included explicit modeling for the treatment group GTAs of the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) and assessment of treatment and control GTAs and their students throughout the semester. Students’ understanding was measured using the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and Flash-mediated Force and Motion Concept Inventory (FM2CA). Students were surveyed about performance of GTAs using the Student Survey (SS). Results indicated changes were tied to individual GTAs’ beliefs about the nature of physics. Student conceptual understanding reflected a two-fold Hake gain compared to the control group. General application of the EMIT model presupposes explicit instruction of the model for GTAs.

This study investigated the construct of comprehensible English in the context of oral proficiency assessment for international teaching assistants. I carried out a three-part mixed method design to explore instructor rater judgments, results of a speech analysis, and how specific speech variables might have influenced judgments on the assessment criteria. Each step focused on a failed/passed assessment comparison made possible through archived data from which 10 individuals initially failed the oral proficiency test but within the same year retook the task and received a passing score. Part A evaluated the perspective of the instructor raters through the rating scale judgments provided on the assessment evaluation forms. In the second part of the study, I coded and scored grammatical, temporal, and phonological variables that occurred on two-minute excerpts of a field-specific summary task from the set of 10 failed and then subsequently passed assessments performed by the same individuals. I inspected the speech analysis results to evaluate differences in the values of specific speech variables on the set of failed performances in comparison to the set of passed performances. In Part C, I conducted 10 case studies to compare each individual's rating scale judgments and rater comments on grammar, fluency, and pronunciation from their failed and their passed assessment with the results from the speech analysis of grammatical, temporal, and phonological variables. The case study approach facilitated a broad inspection of the interrelation among the rater perspectives on the assessment criteria and the speech analysis results. The study findings showed evidence of an interrelation between temporal and phonological variables on rater judgments of comprehensibility, as well as the role of pronunciation as a criterion for oral proficiency assessments. I concluded with implications for future research on the interrelation among speech variables that influence listener perceptions of comprehensibility and the use of pronunciation as a speaking assessment criterion. / text

Institutions of higher education (HEIs) in the United States recruit numerous international graduate students, many of whom serve as teaching assistants. HEIs’ motivations for employing international teaching assistants (ITAs) include not only economic incentives but also humanistic aims of internationalization, for example, increasing cross-cultural cooperation. However, integrating ITAs into the institution, making them welcomed and respected members of the community, has proven difficult. In particular, problems in ITA-student communication have been reported for decades. I argue that the crux of these integration difficulties lies in how linguistic diversity is approached. Policymakers and researchers usually treat ITAs’ Englishes as the cause of communication difficulties, with the implication that ITAs should more closely conform to norms of ‘native’ English. I propose instead that the primary problem is not linguistic diversity itself but ideological perceptions of other Englishes and unproductive responses to the difficulties that arise in trying to communicate across linguistic difference. This study examined policies and perceptions related to ITA-student communication at one internationalizing university through document collection, interviews, and classroom observation. I found that, despite its strategic plan calling for preparing students to enter a globalizing world, the institution’s response to ITA-student communication difficulties targets only ITAs’ competencies, mainly by assessing and remediating their language proficiency. Discussions with students and observations of classroom interaction revealed that many students appeared to orient to communication with ITAs in ways that did not help promote successful communication or prepare them to communicate across linguistic difference in a globalizing world. I also found that available ideological stances and strategies for addressing linguistic difference made it difficult for ITAs to be simultaneously liked and respected as instructors. This study has implications for HEIs seeking to create internationally inclusive communities and prepare their students and other stakeholders for communication across linguistic difference. First, ITA preparation should be reframed so as not to stigmatize ITAs’ Englishes. It should also prepare ITAs to become active agents in socializing students into productive and respectful orientations to linguistic difference. Second, HEIs must more comprehensively seek to confront students’ deficit language ideologies and unproductive responses to communication difficulties.