When you can't understand the teacher

In 2000, Harvard economist George Borjas studied several hundred undergraduate students in economics. He concluded that having a foreign-born teaching assistant resulted in an average grade 0.2 points lower on a 4.0 scale. But scholars at Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus found in a 2002 study that if good training programs are in place, there is little evidence of a negative effect. In some cases there was a positive effect on grades.

Today, about one-quarter of the faculty in American universities are foreign-born, and that should be seen as an asset, says Akbar Marvasti, an economics professor at the University of Houston. "Communication skills are important, there's no question about it, [but] one also needs to acknowledge [their] contributions," he says, especially in science and math. A longtime US citizen who was born in Iran, he says the increasingly diverse student body will benefit from international role models.

At OSU all potential international TAs are evaluated, and many of them are placed in the Spoken English Program (SEP) for a year before they teach. Some need help with pronunciation and idioms, while others need cultural tips, says SEP director Susan Sarwark.

Many are used to an authoritarian classroom, she says, so they find the interaction in America surprising. One new Korean TA commented that his students were lazy because they were always raising their hands. In his country, it would have been selfish to waste a professor's time with questions in class, he told Ms. Sarwark.

That's why she teaches them the American notion that no question is a stupid question. In mock teaching sessions, TAs are evaluated by faculty and undergraduates. American students also volunteer as English-conversation partners.

Ling-Jing Kao, a business PhD student from Taiwan, arrived at OSU in the fall of 2001, but she took SEP classes before teaching the following summer. "My first time teaching, some students do complain about my accent," she says in a phone interview that is easily understandable despite a few trips on grammar. "The most difficult part is how to build up the relationship with students ... because it's not something you can learn from a class. It's more like how you make students comfortable about you." She urges students to tell her immediately if they don't understand something. Her recent evaluations were all positive, she says.

Sarwark says there have been only two formal complaints this year at OSU, which has about 50,000 students. That compares to frequent complaints before the program started in 1986, the same year the state passed a law. "Before that ... there was no uniform training across the university, and it has really helped," she says.

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