TY - JOUR
T1 - Foreign language teaching assistant training
T2 - A contrastive analysis of trainers and trainees' perspectives
AU - Soler, Inmaculada Gómez
AU - Tecedor Cabrero, Marta
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 John Hopkins University. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/3
Y1 - 2018/3
N2 - This study explores current practices of teaching assistant (TA) training in doctoral-granting institutions and expands on previous studies by exploring the views of both faculty and graduate students involved in the process. Our overall goal is to determine whether training practices and goals have changed and, if so, to what extent, in order to reflect the changing objectives of the foreign language (FL) field in the last decades-objectives that involve the development of translingual and transcultural competence and the integration of twenty-first-century skills. We conducted a nationwide survey of Spanish departments that focused on three main areas: language, culture, and technology. Results indicate that TA training is based on immediate teaching needs and lacks long-term goals of professionalization and that there are substantial differences in opinion between TAs and faculty in charge of the training regarding its effectiveness. We argue that our findings have direct implications for the revitalization of TA education since only when TAs are trained to fully integrate culture and language and incorporate technology in meaningful ways in lower-level courses will FL departments be able to strive for the desired integrated curriculum.
AB - This study explores current practices of teaching assistant (TA) training in doctoral-granting institutions and expands on previous studies by exploring the views of both faculty and graduate students involved in the process. Our overall goal is to determine whether training practices and goals have changed and, if so, to what extent, in order to reflect the changing objectives of the foreign language (FL) field in the last decades-objectives that involve the development of translingual and transcultural competence and the integration of twenty-first-century skills. We conducted a nationwide survey of Spanish departments that focused on three main areas: language, culture, and technology. Results indicate that TA training is based on immediate teaching needs and lacks long-term goals of professionalization and that there are substantial differences in opinion between TAs and faculty in charge of the training regarding its effectiveness. We argue that our findings have direct implications for the revitalization of TA education since only when TAs are trained to fully integrate culture and language and incorporate technology in meaningful ways in lower-level courses will FL departments be able to strive for the desired integrated curriculum.
KW - Cultural competence
KW - Digital literacy
KW - Integrated curriculum
KW - Professional development
KW - TA training
KW - Translingual and transcultural competence
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U2 - 10.1353/hpn.2018.0083
DO - 10.1353/hpn.2018.0083
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85046898014
SN - 0018-2133
VL - 101
SP - 38
EP - 54
JO - Hispania
JF - Hispania
IS - 1
ER -