Teaching Assistants' Training Program

Description

Intercultural communication skills related to teaching and collaboration are often encouraged to directly address the needs of international students, a significant and growing population at the university. Yet many EAL (English as an additional language user) students have highlighted added challenges and concerns around their participation using virtual platforms during the pandemic, resulting in feelings of self-doubt and imposter phenomenon.
 Racialized EAL and/or international students in particular have shared experiences of receiving verbal microaggressions, working with impatient audiences, and feeling ignored by fellow classmates. As such, how can we as teaching assistants and course instructors anticipate these challenges and support the plurilingual strengths of our students?
 Goal for the Session:
This session will engage participants on practical strategies and tools to support multicultural, multilingual, multi-accented learners, as well as other many other students who do not fit under the category of international status. The facilitators will also provide participants with a handout on inclusive teaching strategies for EAL students.
 Learning Outcomes:
• Greater awareness of how societal inequity is reproduced in the classroom due to the hegemony of English in intercultural communication
• Highlighting how EAL learners are excluded through racist micro-aggressions and micro-invalidations (based on student reflections shared in workshops)
• Understanding which teaching and facilitation strategies can lessen the impact of exclusion of EAL learners
• An appreciation for how attentiveness to intercultural pedagogy and to EAL audiences can benefit all participants in a space