Penn State College of the Liberal Arts Department of Applied Linquistics

Academic Programs

ITA Program

The Department of Applied Linguistics offers three 3-credit courses specifically for International Teaching Assistants. Students who need to improve their speaking and presentation skills can enroll in the following courses according to the results of the American English Oral Communicative Proficiency Test (AEOCPT) administered by the department. Students will not be permitted to register for these courses unless they have taken this test.

ESL 115G/American Oral English for ITAs I
Prerequisite: score below 200 on the AEOCPT
This course is designed for non-native speakers of English who wish to improve their overall speaking and listening skills in English. Through various oral and aural language activities, students will improve their pronunciation of American English. They will also develop speaking skills in order to engage critically and constructively in a variety of settings. By the end of this course, students will have improved their overall speaking and listening skills, in particular their fluency, to participate successfully in academic settings.
ESL 117G/ American Oral English for ITAs II
Prerequisite: score of 200-229 on the AEOCPT or a grade of ‘A’ required in ESL 115G
This course is designed for intermediate level non-native speakers of English who need to improve their communication effectiveness in order to become teaching assistants (TAs). Through various language related activities students will increase their vocabulary and develop their fluency; improve listening comprehension; develop an awareness of their communication priorities and an ability to self-monitor and correct; develop oral skills necessary for leading and participating in discussions; and develop basic presentational skills.
ESL 118/American Oral English for ITAs III
ITA Program score of 230-249 on the AEOCPT or a grade of ‘A’ required in ESL 117G
In this course students analyze how instructors actually use language to achieve specific purposes or intentions with their students in one-on-one interactions and small group lectures/recitations/discussions. To do this, students will be using the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE), an on-line resource that contains transcripts from various professional interactions across academic disciplines. Students will analyze how teachers explain concepts, ask questions, respond to student questions, and check student understanding as they try to maintain good relationships with their students. Students will develop an awareness of the language used and the contextual variables that influence an instructor’s choice of language to communicate his or her intentions. Students will become more aware of university culture in the US, student expectations, and the role of ITAs; learn to “notice” how instructors use English; become more aware of how they use English in academic roles; learn how to explain concepts and go over problems, questions, and/or homework interactively with students individually and in groups, while maintaining rapport and authority; become aware of the concept of ‘genre’ and differences between academic genres; learn how to negotiate miscommunication with students; learn how an instructor can make grammar and word choices to affect communication (e.g., modals, pronouns, discourse markers).

Interactive Performance Test (IPT)

Students enrolled in ESL 118G must take and pass an Interactive Performance Test (IPT) upon completion of coursework, before they are allowed to assume teaching responsibilities. The IPT is an oral language exit exam which evaluates the student's overall comprehensibility and communicative effectiveness. Depending on the student's performance on the IPT, the following recommendations are given:

  1. No restrictions on teaching.
  2. Repeat course.

For more information about the ITA program, please contact the Director, Professor Mark A. Ouellette.