Sessions

NNS TAs’ Impact: Cultural Awareness and Motivation

Classes led by international graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) impact first-year undergraduate students’ understanding of the world, their motivation to study and use English, and the expansion of their imagined L2 communities. Through analysis of qualitative data, this presentation encourages the utilization of NNS graduate student TAs from developing countries to broaden students’ knowledge about culture, customs, and issues in other countries, and to expose students to contexts and models of using English as a lingua franca.