The language barrier between students and non-native English-speaking teaching assistants, although sometimes more perceived than tangible, is an issue many departments at UB deal with on a recurring basis.
Each year, departments such as computer science and engineering and chemistry field complaints from students dissatisfied with the quality of instruction their TAs provide, many of whom come to UB from abroad.
"Among the almost 2,000 undergraduate students who take chemistry each semester, we frequently receive a few complaints early in the semester," said Jim Atwood, chair of the department of chemistry. The department employs 55 TAs this semester, about 30 percent of which are international graduate students.
The department of computer science and engineering encounters similar complaints in the first few weeks of each semester, some of them well founded, according to Assistant Chair Helene Kershner.
"It runs the gamut. We've had students who have some reason to complain and others who have no reason to complain," said Kershner.
UB's international applicants are required to pass the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) for admission. The exam measures the speaking and writing abilities of students from countries in which English is not a native language. The test is used by more than 4,300 colleges and universities throughout North America and Canada, according to its official Web site.
The TOEFL is sometimes not an adequate gauge of a person's ability to speak English, according to Kershner, particularly for Chinese students. Kershner said that Chinese students can often read and write English well enough to achieve a passing grade on the exam, but are left with inadequate speaking skills.
Partially to compensate for the TOEFL's flaws, students accepted as TAs must pass SPEAK, a local equivalent of the Test of Spoken English, administered by the English Language Institute in Buffalo.
"It is a standardized test of their ability to speak or communicate orally," said Keith Otto, program director of English as a second language at UB. "From having worked with the SPEAK test for several years, it really is a good demonstration of someone's speaking skills."
The exam consists of a 20-minute simulated interview between a computer and the prospective teaching assistant. Trained listeners then review the recorded interview and rate the student's ability, said Otto. To pass the test, students must score a 55 out of 60 possible points awarded for correct responses.
Regardless of the testing, some undergraduates feel their teaching assistants are under-prepared for instructing a class in English.
"I had a Chinese TA for math. He was really smart and intelligent, but he always seemed so nervous because he was more worried if he could communicate with us," said sophomore English and political science major Lynn Kwon.
Even students with TAs fluent in English often find they cannot easily understand foreign-born teaching assistants. Department administrators believe there are several reasons for this communication barrier.
"Sometimes [a TA's] English is okay but they don't know how to teach because they have no experience," said Kershner. Kershner said that inexperienced teaching assistants, regardless of their native language, often talk to the blackboard or projector instead of students.
The computer science and engineering department, which employs 71 TAs this semester, has one of the largest TA contingents within the university, according to Kershner. Each of these TAs is evaluated mid-semester to ensure they are teaching adequately.
"We've also had what I would call cultural prejudices on the part of the American undergraduate," said Kershner. She said undergraduates sometimes see a TA of foreign descent and assume they will not be able to understand them.
"Understanding accents is partly a matter of experience and partly a matter of open-mindedness," stated Tom Jacobson, chair of the department of communication, in an e-mail. "I believe that some undergraduates are not prepared for this, for one reason or another, and have an unnecessarily hard time."
Both Kershner and Jacobson cited Indian TAs as a group that typically encounters this problem. Indian graduate students often speak English as well or better than students born in the United States, according to Jacobson, but their accent can be difficult to understand at first.
Kershner said that although she receives these types of complaints early in the semester, after the first few weeks, students have adapted to the accents.
Beyond language barriers, culture-based differences in teaching often lead to confusion in classrooms.
"I think that if a TA doesn't conform to how everyone in a particular field does something, they shouldn't be teaching to UB students," said Chris Palian, a sophomore mechanical engineering major. "My calculus II TA used to do math problems from the lower right hand corner of the board and wrote to the upper left, which defies the normal mathematical progression of things," said Palian.
Each department has their own way of dealing with these types of cases. In computer science and engineering courses, Kershner explained the TA is usually evaluated and sometimes videotaped. Administrators will then watch the tape with the TA, making suggestions as to how they could teach more effectively.
