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Publication Date

3-1-2013

Abstract

This article begins by synthesizing research findings concerning the increasingly important role graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) play in fostering undergraduate learners’ oral proficiency. Despite this important role, our review of TA training practices in the literature found a lack of research on the preparation TAs receive prior to beginning their foreign language instruction. Accordingly, the present study examines incoming TAs’ perceptions of their command of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) techniques presented at an interdepartmental, pre-service orientation at a large Midwestern research university. Using a qualitative approach, we investigated the unique ways in which this orientation influenced novice and experienced TAs differently in the analysis of thirteen focus participants’ semi-structured interviews. The discussion speaks to the critical elements of the pre-service orientation that appeared to promote TAs’ appropriation of various aspects of CLT as well as the tenets of CLT that remained neglected by the majority of the focus participants. The pedagogical implications address ways to maximize CLT training and extend beyond pre-service TA orientations to K-12 teacher training programs and workshops.

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