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Survey data from 436 undergraduates across colleges and course levels were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, producing themes grounded in prior research and emerging original insights. Findings highlight links between language and pedagogic challenges, and between communication as an interactive construct. Students reporting no ITA problems articulated fewer relational perceptions, while those reporting difficulties described interaction-based barriers affecting instructional performance.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/understanding-us-undergraduate-students-perceptions-of-international-teaching-assistants/598162/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/understanding-us-undergraduate-students-perceptions-of-international-teaching-assistants/598162.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Mafia Boss","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the main purpose of the mixed-method study?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"To understand undergraduate students’ perceptions of international teaching assistants (ITAs) at a major research institution.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How was the data collected and analyzed?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"A survey sample of 436 undergraduates was collected and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively, with open-ended responses coded into themes.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What perceptions are linked to communication and teaching performance?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Students’ views connect language to pedagogic difficulties, and emphasize communication as an interactive barrier that interferes with ITAs’ instructional performance.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},598162,1792655312,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962090760730,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","Understanding US Undergraduate Students’Perceptions of International  \nTeaching Assistants  \nThe purpose of this mixed-method study was to better understand undergraduate students’ perceptions of international teaching assistants (ITAs) at a major research institution. Data collected through surveying a sample of 436 undergraduate students from different colleges and at different class levels were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Undergraduate students’ perceptions of ITAs were derived through qualitative analysis of the open-ended survey data, which resulted in themes both established in previous research (e.g., language) and original ideas. For example, one perception identified was the connection of language to pedagogic difficulties, while another perception focused on the interactive construct of communication. Further, students who indicated that they did not have problems with ITAs were less likely to articulate perceptions that were relational, whereas students who did report having a problem with ITAs articulated perceptions that involved an interaction (communication and language as a barrier interfering with pedagogic performance of ITAs).  \nGraduate education can be considered a major part of American  \nhigher education, with about 1.78 million students enrolled in grad  \nuate programs in universities across the US. Among them, about 26% are graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees (Council of Graduate School, 2016). Out of this number, a significant number of graduate students hold teaching assistantships to pay for their tuition and to earn a stipend. The tasks of teaching assistants vary from grading and conducting discussion classes to teaching classes as independent instructors. Whatever their tasks are, they require “broad and complex…support”(Jennings, 1987, p. 5) from the institution in which they are studying and teaching. This support is invaluable to international teaching assistants (ITAs), particularly nonnative  \nThe CATESOL Journal 31.1 • 2019 • 133  \nEnglish-speaking teaching assistants, who have to teach in a language that isnot their native language in addition to adapting to a new classroom culture.  \nThis challenging task of teaching in a new environment and in a second language is exacerbated by the responses to ITAs from many undergraduate (UG) students and their parents. In the 1970s and early 1980s, UGs’ complaints about ITAs’ inadequate language proficiency and their ignorance of US education culture came out in the national media (Smith, Byrd, Nelson, Barrett, & Constantinides, 1992) . The parents of UGs, in particular, pressured legislators and university administrators to solve the “foreign TA problem” (Bailey, 1983, p. 309) . The result has been the passing of laws or mandates to assess the language skills of ITAs and train them to develop language and pedagogical skills (Ernst, 2008) .  \nBefore the development of these ITA programs, research on ITAs was conducted by scholars such as Mestenhauser et al. and Bailey in the 1980s. As research in this field continues to grow, the areas most often researched are ITAs’ language proficiency, followed by intercultural communication between ITAs and their students (Villarreal, 2012/2013) . Inherent in these areas are UGs’ evaluation or perceptions of ITAs. Researchers are increasingly finding value in involving UGs’ evaluation and perception of ITAsto strengthen ITA programs (Sarwark & vom Saal, 1989; Staples, Kang, & Wittner, 2014). Yule and Hoffman (1993), for example, explored the possibility of involving UGs in the ITA screening process and demonstrated that the UG observers were overwhelmingly in agreement with ESL instructorsin terms of their evaluation of the ITAs. The benefit of including the UGsin the assessment process is that it offers validation to the verdicts of ESL professionals regarding the readiness of ITAs to assume instructional duties. Moreover, it involves the inclusion of the very party whose “complaints ","cbCaia9zSYrQoc92","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaia9zSYrQoc92","pdf",169090,17,"English","# Introduction\n## Study purpose and research design\n## Background and policy context for ITA programs\n## Prior research on UG perceptions\n# Literature Review\n## Baileys foreign TA problem and instructional challenges\n## Language abilities and communicative problems\n## Perceived pronunciation and oral communication issues","[{\"question\":\"What is the main purpose of the mixed-method study?\",\"answer\":\"To understand undergraduate students’ perceptions of international teaching assistants (ITAs) at a major research institution.\"},{\"question\":\"How was the data collected and analyzed?\",\"answer\":\"A survey sample of 436 undergraduates was collected and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively, with open-ended responses coded into themes.\"},{\"question\":\"What perceptions are linked to communication and teaching performance?\",\"answer\":\"Students’ views connect language to pedagogic difficulties, and emphasize communication as an interactive barrier that interferes with ITAs’ instructional performance.\"}]","Understanding US Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of International Teaching Assistants | PDF",1792086403,43]