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Graduate
Teaching Assistantships |
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All students are encouraged to serve as a teaching assistant (TA) for at
least one semester during their degree program. Each prospective TA is required
to participate (one time only) in the Graduate Assistants in Teaching Orientation
(GATO). International students must pass the TBEST (refer to Language Skills
section) before they can be assigned as a Teaching Assistant. All other
requirements stated in the Guidelines
for Graduate Assistants/Associates in Teaching must also be followed
explicitly. Your teaching experience may involve presentation of lectures,
extension educational programs, and/or laboratory sessions, consultation
with students, and participation in preparation of pedagogical materials.
At the completion of the course, the faculty supervisor will provide you
and your Major Advisor with a written evaluation of your teaching performance.
This will also be submitted to the Graduate College at the end of the semester
when final grades are due. Under no circumstances do graduate students assume
primary responsibility for the course being taught. The faculty member supervising
the course will be held accountable for all activities of the course. The
effort on the student's part will be at least 15 hours per week. The School
of Plant Sciences considers the teaching assistantship (TA) requirement
to be an integral part of the degree requirements and completely analogous
to course work and examination requirements.
Graduate Assistants in Teaching have nine (9) month academic appointments.
Students with non University fellowships or traineeships should inform the
awarding agency of the existence of this requirement. Students satisfying
the teaching requirement will receive financial support from the School
(including a Tuition and Fee Waiver). All students with Teaching Assistantships
are exempt from the non resident tuition charge but must pay registration
fees and insurance. They also must maintain a minimum grade point average
of 3.2 or higher and register for at least ten units of graduate credit
per semester. Additionally, all foreign students who are required to submit
a TOEFL score for University admittance must achieve both a TOEFL score
of 600 and a TSE score of 50 before they will be allowed to TA.
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of the most important factors affecting the success of students who are
not native English-speakers in graduate studies is their language ability.
Consequently, it is the obligation of students for whom English is a second
language to strive to improve their skills as soon as possible during their
stay in the program. When students meet with their Provisional Advisory
Committee at the beginning of the first semester, this issue should be discussed.
The PAC will determine the necessary course of action, and may advise students
to take advantage of one of the course options listed below. If students
truly wish to succeed, it is imperative that they strive to improve their
conversational and compositional skills, both by participating in the types
of courses listed below and by emphasizing use of English in their daily
activities. Many faculty members consider success in meeting the University
and School language proficiency requirements to be necessary criteria for
acceptance into their research programs, so new students should aggressively
work to remedy any deficiencies in this area within their first semester.
Failure to do so may not only impact their academic performance but also
might mean that students are unable to find a Major Advisor by the end of
their first year.
Help
in improving language ability is available from:
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- Three
evening courses are available from CESL. More information can be obtained
from the CESL Admissions Office in Building #24 or by calling 621-3637,
or by e-mail (cesl@u.arizona.edu).
- The
English Department also offers Advanced Composition for International
Students, ENGL 407A, fall and 407A, B, fall and spring semesters. The
courses are designed to improve writing skills. More information can
be obtained by calling 621-7412.
- Pima
Community College (West Campus) offers English as a Second Language
courses in the fall and spring semesters with different levels and emphases
(conversational, grammar, compositional, etc.). More information can
be obtained by calling 206-6974.
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| Requirements
for International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) |
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English is not your first language you must take the T-BEST. All international
graduate students wanting to be hired as Graduate Assistants in Teaching
(GATs) who have scored below 26 points in the Speak section of the TOEFL
iBT test are required to take the Task-Based English Speaking Test or T-BEST
designed to measure your ability to communicate in English. Please use the
following link to register for the test. An email message will be sent back
to you confirming the location, date and time of your appointment to take
this online test. A fee for the T-BEST test will be charged to your bursar's
account. Sign
up for the T-BEST
We want to invite you to participate in
a T-BEST study conducted by Dr. Jun Liu, Head of the English department
at UA, to norm the responses of international graduate students to T-BEST
and to determine the extent to which T-BEST and TOEFL-iBT scores are correlated.
By agreeing to participate, you would authorize the Graduate College to
submit your T-BEST scores, TOEFL scores, and other non-identifying information
(i.e., your gender, major, country of origin, native language, months
you lived in an English-speaking country and years of English training)
but not your name, date of birth, student identification number, voice
recording or any other personal information, to Dr. Liu for further research.
Your participation in the study is thus confidential and totally voluntary,
and will not require any additional time beyond the 10 minutes needed
for you to take the T-BEST. On the other hand, your refusing to participate
will have no effect on your graduate status, your employment as GAT, or
any other matter at the University of Arizona. When you sign
up to take the test, you will be presented with a consent form and
asked if you agree to participate.
Program and services for International
Graduate Teaching Assistants, including information on College Teaching
for International Teaching Assistants (GRAD 697d), and Pronunciation for
International Students (697e) can be found at http://utc.arizona.edu/tas/ita/index.html
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