INTERNATIONAL TEACHING ASSISTANT WORKSHOPS
Series Overview
In this four-part workshop series, multilingual instructors will have the opportunity to develop and practice intercultural communication skills for teaching and learning in the American classroom.
Specifically, these workshops address cultural expectations and situations in the American classroom, language features of the American classroom, how to solve communication breakdowns, and how to use presentation tools strategically in instructional settings. These workshops are a collaborative effort among the OSU English Department, the Graduate College, and the English Language and Intercultural Center (ELIC).
Attendance at all four workshops qualifies as a Level 2 instructional activity in the OSU Graduate College’s 360° Critical Skills for Career Success professional development program. Attendees of 1-3 workshops qualify for a Level 1 activity in instruction or communication.
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Workshop 1
Cultural expectations and instructional situations in the American classroom
In this first workshop, we’ll explore the instructional situations that are common in the American academic setting (e.g. office hours, lectures, discussions, etc). We’ll also describe and practice some of the different cultural and language expectations in these various instructional situations. This first workshop will feature experienced multilingual instructors who will facilitate discussions and answer questions you may have about their experience in the American classroom.
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Workshop 2
Linguistic features of the American classroom
The second workshop in this series focuses on common pronunciation difficulties (e.g. pronouncing ‘very’ as ‘wary’) and strategies to practice these pronunciation skills. Although these are important skills, research shows that these “lower-level” features have less of an impact on student understanding than “discourse-level” features like speech rate, pauses, and intonation. Thus, this workshop will also address common challenges in English intonation and strategies for addressing them.
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Workshop 3
Solving communication breakdowns
In any communicative interaction, regardless of language background, communication breakdowns are bound to happen. In this workshop, we’ll explore common situations in the American classroom that can lead to communication breakdowns and describe and practice cultural and linguistic strategies to mitigate them.
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Workshop 4
Organizational and Presentation Strategies for Academic Presentations
In this final workshop in the series, we’ll explore and practice organizational and presentation strategies to support your language use in the classroom. Specifically, we’ll discuss ways presentation tools like PowerPoint or LaTeX can help your students follow your instructions more successfully and reduce potential communication breakdowns.