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Foreign Language TAs' Perceptions of Training Components: Do We Know How They Like to Be Trained?
Author(s) -
Brandl Klaus K.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/0026-7902.00074
Subject(s) - psychology , perception , supervisor , training (meteorology) , foreign language , class (philosophy) , data collection , medical education , mathematics education , pedagogy , applied psychology , computer science , medicine , sociology , management , social science , physics , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , meteorology , economics
This article describes a survey of foreign language teaching assistants' (TAs') perceptions of which elements of training they consider beneficial to their development as language instructors. Fifty‐six novice and experienced TAs participated in the survey; 23 in follow‐up interviews. The results of the survey, which distinguished between individual and group training methods, showed that informal discussions with peers and the supervisor, end‐of‐course student evaluations, and small‐group in‐class student interviews were rated highest. Preservice training was rated highest in the group training category. This article further discusses potential variables that support the rationales for the TAs' ratings and suggests that the TAs' self‐initiative in seeking out advice, feedback data from students, the consultant's role, her or his rank and knowledge in formal feedback sessions, focused and concrete feedback, and the mode of data collection play a major role in determining the degree of success of the training method.