[IP] more on Unclear on American Campus: What the Foreign Teacher Said
Begin forwarded message:
From: Mary Shaw <mary.shaw@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 27, 2005 6:57:07 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] Unclear on American Campus: What the Foreign
Teacher Said
Reply-To: Mary Shaw <mary.shaw@xxxxxxxxx>
Dave,
The appropriate distinction is whether the student is a native
speaker of English.
Since 1991, Pennsylvania has required all students whose native
language is not English to pass a language certification test before
being allowed to teach undergraduates. Carnegie Mellon applies the
requirement to teaching graduates as well.
Carnegie Mellon explains the requirement as, "Any student who is not
a native speaker of English should be tested regardless of
citizenship. US residency or citizenship is no guarantee of English
proficiency. A Canadian student who is a native English speaker does
not need the test; a French speaking Canadian does."
TOEFL, on the other hand, does not have "passing" grades, but rather
scores. Each admissions committee can decide for itself how to
interpret those scores and what other information to consider.
Experience has showed us that English proficiency that is good enough
to succeed in a PhD program does not necessarily assure sufficient
proficiency to communicate effectively in a classroom.
The Carnegie Mellon test has four possible outcomes that authorize
different levels of interaction with students, from "grading only" to
"ready to TA (but may need training in teaching skills)".
Mary
On 6/27/05, David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
From: Egor Kobylkin <egor@xxxxxxxxxxxx >
Date: June 27, 2005 5:47:26 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Unclear on American Campus: What the Foreign Teacher Said
> Many universities are trying to minimize the problem by
> creating programs to assess the English skills of
> international graduate students who are prospective teaching
> assistants and offering courses as needed
Dave, my two cents.
Too much buzz about the word "foreign". These teachers will probably
get their Ph.D's soon, then green cards and then become US citizens
i.e. Americans. So the problem is not that they are coming from
abroad or something, but just their language skills. And interesting
enough, to get admitted to a serious university one has to pass TOEFL
and GMAT, both of them not the easiest test in spoken and written
English out there. One which passed TOEFL would be certainly in a
position to explain chemistry to a freshman.
So either the universities in question could not afford rejecting the
grad students that failed or would have fail TOEFL, or something is
wrong with the language tests themselves.
And anyway, with 50% of the foreign teachers in the university
system, it is not a question of the students being able to understand
teachers, but rather teachers to have enough motivation and abilities
to learn English. The notion "foreign" will not be helpful in
improving the quality of US education system, I believe.
Best regards,
Egor
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