Students at Penn State have come to associate their education with several things: large classes, boring professors, and, in some cases, hard-to-understand teaching assistants.

"When people schedule classes, they try to get teachers with American-sounding names," Erin Cunningham (senior-life sciences) said. "I'm guilty of that as well."

At Friday's Board of Trustees meeting, Eva Pell, dean of the Graduate School, gave an informational report about the language assessment test and preparation program for international teaching assistants.

Trustee Walter Conti said many students complain about not being about to understand their foreign instructors.

"I'm frustrated by this problem," Conti said.

President Graham Spanier said he considers this to be a very important issue at the university because language barriers can affect the learning process.

"I think about it all the time," Spanier said. "It will be a continuing focus of discussion in the administration."

Pell said the university does not plan to change the cutoff for passing the English proficiency exam, which all international graduate-teaching assistants must take. Students are required to take up to three English classes as a Second Language (ESL) courses depending on their scores.

Students must then pass a 30-minute exit exam, which includes a 10-minute teaching simulation.

Cunningham said she has noticed students getting frustrated by communication problems in the classroom.

"The more mature students just handle it," Cunningham said. "We understand that not everyone knows the language perfectly."

Karen Johnson, director of the linguistics and applied language studies program, which administers the exam, said she believes the program is effective in preparing international TAs to communicate in the classroom.

"The program is quite rigorous and we have set very high standards," Johnson said. "The variability is what are individual departments doing to prepare all of their TAs, not just international [TAs]."

Song Li, an ITA for Biology 230W (Molecules and Cells) suggested asking questions if communication problems arise.

"If you don't give any feedback to me, I will suppose you understand what I say," Li said. "Don't do things like, if you don't understand me, you sleep in the class."

Li said he has a strategy to deal with students who do not understand what he is saying. He said he always prints his students a copy of what he is going to say in class.

"If they don't understand what I'm saying, I say 'Look at the handout,' " Li said. "If I'm not sure about pronunciation, I write it down on the blackboard."

Trustee Charles Brosius said it is not always the instructor's language that affects the quality of a course. He used Physics 215 (Physics for Science and Engineering I), a class he took in college, as an example.

"Seventy-five percent of us failed the class because we had a TA that spoke perfect English but couldn't teach the course," Brosius said.

Spanier said that many students complain about not being able to understand a TA with an accent.

"You are hearing a certain amount of ethnocentrism among undergraduates," Spanier said. "Some students consider an accent a lack of fluency in English."

Mike Pasterick (junior-supply chain and information sciences) said he had a foreign TA who spoke very poor English for his management science and information systems recitation.

"I could not grasp the class unless I had some kind of individualized attention," Pasterick said. "My TA spent the whole class trying to explain herself and I didn't get anything out of it."

Pell said she could understand why students would get frustrated with ITAs.

"When students are taking difficult courses whose content is already challenging, it can be challenging to also feel you have to focus on understanding the individual," Pell said.

Pell said students should make an effort to understand their foreign TAs.

"Once you work through an accent, students will discover that these ITAs are very smart and have a lot to offer," Pell said.

Meredith Doran, assistant professor of French and applied linguistics, said foreign instructors contribute to the educational experience.

"Students can raise their awareness about other cultures by having contact with international folks," Doran said.

About 40 percent of TAs at University Park are international students. TAs teach 13 percent of student credit hours each semester, Pell said.