International Teaching Assistant program (ITA)

This program prepares graduate and post-graduate students to be effective International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) in North American universities. Students will improve teaching and pronunciation skills, gain the cultural understanding needed to be a successful ITA, and improve functional fluency and test-taking skills.
Each of the four courses in the program — Culture & Teaching, Functions of English, Pronunciation and Practicum — meets one hour every day, five days a week. The courses are integrated through curricula, textbooks and teacher teamwork. Teachers meet weekly to coordinate their courses and to discuss and monitor student progress.
Students can expect to increase skill and awareness through class presentations, homework assignments, videotapes, language lab work, Internet resources, feedback from teacher and classmates, and self-assessment.
The SPEAK test (Institutional TSE) is also given at the end of the program. Qualified graders at UC Riverside rate the test. The final score is available upon request to interested graduate divisions.

• Culture & Teaching: Students are introduced to skills that are essential for successful TA-ing, such as introducing a syllabus, explaining a visual or fielding questions.
• Functions of English: Students hone functions needed in and out of the classroom and prepare for the tests required of ITAs on Western campuses—such as the SPEAK® test.
• Pronunciation: Students concentrate on areas of particular difficulty for non-native speakers of English and raise their awareness of individual pronunciation issues.
• Practicum: Students take the lead in presenting and facilitating discussions to integrate skills learned in the other three courses.
The primary goals of this program:
• to equip participants with teaching skills and cross-cultural awareness required to become effective ITAs in Western academia
• to raise awareness of individual pronunciation problems
• to improve pronunciation
• to integrate skills and increase confidence in teaching ability through presentations, student facilitated discussions and micro-lessons.
• to improve confidence and scores in an ITA-qualifying test

• University placement
assistance.
• Private or group conversational partner at no additional cost.
• Extension class with American students at no extra charge.