Foreign Language Exam Research Articles

Predicting Success for International Teaching Assistants in a U.S. University

In this analysis of the performance of 233 international graduate assistants during a 2-year period, we attempted, via Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores submitted at the time of application, to predict which of these students would eventually receive positive or negative recommendations to be assigned teaching duties. Students who received negative recommendations were found, on average, to have significantly lower TOEFL and GRE Verbal scores than those who received positive recommendations. The percentage of each recommendation group scoring at or above a series of TOEFL cutoff scores was established and used to calculate the ratio of risk (funding students who will receive a negative recommendation) to reward (funding students who will receive a positive recommendation). The relationship of recommendation type to subsequent grade point average (GPA) showed a significant difference in favor of the positive group during the first year of graduate study, but not thereafter. Implications are explored for decision making and the advising of other academic departments regarding the awarding of teaching assistantships to international students. The increasing number of nonnative-speaking international teaching assistants (ITAs) in U.S. universities has resulted in an unprecedented demand for training/preparation programs from ESL educators. Their advice actively sought by university vicechancellors and deans, their programs mandated by state legislatures, and their opinions reported in the national press (cf. contributions in Bailey, Pialorsi, & Zukowski/Faust, 1984, and Chism, 1987), the ESL professionals involved in such programs have found themselves in a political spotlight unusual for the field. One effect of this attention has been a tendency to talk of solutions