Connection: Clarifying Education

The University of Idaho is already taking steps to remedy language problems in the classroom.

At the University of Idaho last week, students asked the Faculty Council to require basic English speech tests for foreign teaching assistants.

And the student senate recently passed a resolution calling for the testing, citing language barriers as a problem to learning.

Many of the UI teaching assistants are international students in graduate programs. As part of their degree program, they are required to help their major professor with the teaching load.

While many departments have programs to train teaching assistants, not all of them deal with possible language barriers.

Instead of just offering a test, Dene Thomas, UI vice provost for academic affairs, has proposed testing in conjunction with a course to prepare teaching assistants to teach.

“We want more than a test,” Thomas said. So with the help of the American Language and Culture program, the school has been working for a year to develop a class to deal with pronunciation as well as the culture of American universities. That way the teaching assistants will know what to expect from their American students, she said.