Using reflective dialogic blogs with international teaching assistants

Rationale, context, and findings

Authors

  • Ekaterina Arshavskaya Utah State University Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.26725

Keywords:

writing, dialogic reflective blogs, blogging, international teaching assistants

Abstract

Given the growing number of international teaching assistants (ITAs) on US campuses, ITAs have become critical members of US academic communities. Research related to ITAs’ experiences in US classrooms reveals certain challenges that ITAs encounter as instructors in this new educational context. These challenges can be instructional, social, linguistic, or cultural in nature. In response to the need to provide incoming ITAs with both ongoing institutional and personal support, this pilot action research study investigates the impact of the use of reflective dialogic blogs on the ITAs in terms of their development of teaching expertise, cross-cultural awareness, and language skills at the completion of the ITA training course offered at a southwestern US university. The study involved a group of ITAs in online interactions via blogs with the ITA-training course instructor for the duration of one academic semester. Data collection focused on the content of the ITAs’ writing and their perceptions of the effectiveness of reflective dialogic blogs in regard to their development as instructors. The results suggest that more attempts to use tools such as reflective dialogic blogs should be made in the future. The article also suggests possible modifications for the use of reflective dialogic blogs with prospective students.

Author Biography

  • Ekaterina Arshavskaya, Utah State University

    Ekaterina Arshavskaya is Assistant Professor in ESL at Utah State University.

References

Altinsel, Z., and Rittenberg, W. (1996). Cultural support for international TAs: An undergraduate buddy program. Paper presented at the Conference of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Chicago, IL. Retrieved from http:// search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=trueanddb=ericandAN=ED407918an dsite=ehost-live

Bigelow, M., and Ranney, M. (2005). Pre-service ESL teachers’ knowledge about language and its transfer to lesson planning. In N. Bartels (Ed.), Applied linguistics and language teacher education, 179–200. New York: Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2954-3_11

Bilton, L., and Sivasubramaniam, S. (2009). An inquiry into expressive writing: A classroom-based study. Language Teaching Research, 13 (3), 301–320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362168809104702

Bogdan, R., and Biklin, S. K. (1992). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education. New York: Continuum.

Bresnahan, M. J., and Cai, D. H. (2000). From the other side of the desk: Conversations with international students about teaching in the US. Communication Quarterly, 48 (2), 65–75.

Bryant, A., and Charmaz, K. (Eds). (2006). The SAGE handbook of grounded theory. London: SAGE Publications.

Bullough, R.V., and Knowles, J. G. (1991). Teaching and nurturing: Changing conceptions of self as teacher. Qualitative Studies in Education, 4, 121–140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0951839910040203

Charmaz, K. (1990). Discovering chronic illness: Using grounded theory. Social Science and Medicine, 30 (11), 1161–1172. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ 0277-9536(90)90256-R

Farrell, T. S. C. (1998). EFL teacher development through journal writing. RELC Journal, 29 (1), 92–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/003368829802900106

Farrell, T. S. C. (2012). Frameworks for writing: Reflective writing for language teachers. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.

Glaser, B. G., and Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New York: Aldine Publishing.

Golombek, P. R., and Johnson, K. E. (2004). Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: Examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in second-language teachers’ development. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 10 (3), 307–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354060042000204388

Gorsuch, G. J. (2006). Discipline-specific practica for international teaching assistants. English for Specific Purposes, 25 (1), 90–108. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.esp.2005.06.003

Gorsuch, G. J. (2011). Improving speaking fluency for international teaching assistants by increasing input. TESL-EJ, 14 (4), 1–25. Retrieved from http:// www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume14/ej56/ej56a1/

Hebbani, A., and Hendrix, K. G. (2014). Capturing the experiences of international teaching assistants in the US American classroom. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 138, 61–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tl.20097

Holmes, V. L., and Moulton, M. R. (1997). Dialogue journals as an ESL learning strategy. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 40 (8), 616–621.

Johnson, K. E. (1994). The emerging beliefs and instructional practices of preservice English as second language teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 10, 439–452. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0742-051X(94)90024-8

Johnson, K. E., and Golombek, P. R. (Eds). (2002). Teachers’ narrative inquiry as professional development. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Kuo, Y-H. (2002). International teaching assistants on American campuses. International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 4 (1), 63–71.

Lantolf, J., and Thorne, S. (2006). Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lave, J., and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ CBO9780511815355

Larsen-Freeman, D., and Strom, V. (1977). The construction of a second language acquisition index of development. Language Learning, 27 (1), 123–134. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1977.tb00296.x

Lee, H.-C. (2012). The reading response e-journal: An alternative way to engage low-achieving EFL students. Language Teaching Research, 17 (1), 111–131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362168812457539

Leki, L. (1992). Understanding ESL writers – A guide for teachers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Li, L., Mazer, J. P., and Ju, R. (2011). Resolving international teaching assistant language inadequacy through dialogue: Challenges and opportunities for clarity and credibility. Communication Education, 60 (4), 461–478. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/03634523.2011.565352

Lin, J.-C. G., and Yi, J. K. (1997). Asian international students’ adjustment: Issues and program suggestions. College Student Journal, 31 (4), 473–480.

Lincoln, Y. S., and Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Maynard, T. (2001). The student-teacher and the school community of practice: A consideration of ‘learning as participation’. Cambridge Journal of Education, 31 (1), 39–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057640123915

McDonald, B. A., Rosselli, J. A., and Clifford, J. E. (1997). ESL journal writing: Learning, reflections, and adjustments to American life. Education Resources Information Center, 1–52.

Numrich, C. (1996). On becoming a language teacher: Insights from diary studies. TESOL Quarterly, 30 (1), 131–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3587610

Nunan, D. (1992). Research methods in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Riazantseva, A. (2012). ‘I ain’t changing anything’: A case-study of successful generation 1.5 immigrant college students’ writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 11, 184–193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2012.04.007

Rogoff, B. (1984). Introduction: Thinking and learning in social content. In B. Rogoff and J. Lave (Eds), Everyday cognition: Its development in social context, 1–8. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Ross, C. (2007, March 22). Redirecting the flow of university intercultural responsibility. Paper presented at the 41st Annual Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Convention, Seattle, WA.

Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11, 129–158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/11.2.129

Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Smith, J., Meyers, C., and Burkhalter, A. (1992). Communicate: strategies for international teaching assistants. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. http://dx.doi. org/10.1007/BF00915598

Smith, K. S. (1993). A case study on the successful development of an international teaching assistant. Innovative Higher Education, 17 (3), 149–163.

Spack, R., and Sadow, K. (1983). Student-teacher working journals in ESL freshman composition. TESOL Quarterly, 17 (4), 575–593. http://dx.doi. org/10.2307/3586614

Staples, S., Kang, O., and Wittner, E. (2014). Considering interlocutors in university discourse communities: Impacting US undergraduate students’ perceptions of ITAs through a structured contact program. English for Specific Purposes, 35, 54–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2014.02.002

Stevenson, I., and Jenkins, S. (1994). Journal writing in the training of international teaching assistants. Journal of Second Language Writing, 3 (2), 97–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1060-3743(94)90010-8

Strauss, A., and Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Torkelson, K. (1992, March). Using imagination to encourage ITAs to take risks. Paper presented at the Conference of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Vancouver, Canada.

Trebing, D. (2007). International teaching assistants’ attitudes toward teaching and understanding of US American undergraduate students (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). Thinking and speech. In R. W. Rieber and A. S. Carton (Eds), The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 1), 37–285. New York: Plenum.

Wang, J., and Odell, S. J. (2007). An alternative conception of mentor-novice relationships: Learning to teach in reform-minded ways as a context. Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Journal of Research and Studies, 23 (4), 473–489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.12.010

Warhurst, R. P. (2008). ‘Cigars on the flight-deck’: New lecturers’ participatory learning within workplace communities of practice. Studies in Higher Education, 33 (4), 453–467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070802211828

Williams, E. (2006). Literacy Studies. In A. Davies and C. Elder (Eds), The handbook of applied linguistics, 576–604. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Zamel, V. (1982). The process of discovering meaning. TESOL Quarterly, 16 (2), 195–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3586792

Zhou, J. (2009). What is missing in the international teaching assistants training curriculum? Journal of Faculty Development, 23 (2), 19–24.

Published

2016-11-14

Issue

Section

Reflections on Practice

How to Cite

Arshavskaya, E. (2016). Using reflective dialogic blogs with international teaching assistants: Rationale, context, and findings. Writing and Pedagogy, 8(2), 333-359. https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.26725

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>