The ELP TA Exam

This exam is designed to indicate whether a non-native English speaking graduate student needs to work on certain oral communication classroom issues such as pronunciation, discussion leading skills, and/or rhetorical norms of American oral discourse. The Dean of the Arts and Sciences Graduate School has stipulated that all non-native English speaking graduate students who are going to perform duties as a teaching assistant must take this test before they can be given TA duties. Departments have found this exam helpful in determining whether a student is ready to assume the responsibility of holding office hours and/or leading undergraduate discussion and/or lab sections. There are two types of ELP TA exams: the mini-lecture exam and role play exam. Students who are TAs in foreign languages take the role play exam. Others take the mini-lecture exam.

• Mini-Lecture Exam
  Students who will lead a class or lab in English will take the mini-lecture exam. The mini-lecture exam consists of three parts and is videotaped.
  1. The first part is a 10-minute lecture to be prepared and presented by the prospective teaching assistant. The lecture topic should be taken from the first class session of a freshman level course in that student's academic area.
  2. The second part involves extemporaneous response to two or more questions posed by the panel of examiners.
  3. The last part of the exam is an oral reading of a written passage selected from a freshman level textbook in that student's academic area.
  
  The videotape is kept on file at the English Language Program office for two years and should be viewed by the student with a member of the program faculty for feedback and teaching suggestions. The placement criteria are pronunciation and grammatical accuracy, vocabulary control, nonverbal communication skills, blackboard management, rate of speech, volume, organization of material, and interaction ability.
  
• Role Play Exam
  The role play exam is for foreign language TAs who will not lead a class in English but will conduct office hours in English. The role play exam consists of two parts and is videotaped. The first part is a short oral reading. The second part is a role play of holding office hours. A member of the English Language Program staff plays the role of a student and asks the TA typical questions such as: What is the course like? Are the exams oral or written? I don't understand this--can you help me with this question? How can I improve my listening skills? How can I improve my speaking skills? etc. The role play is held for ten minutes. The placement criteria are pronunciation and grammatical accuracy, vocabulary control, nonverbal communication skills, rate of speech, volume, organization of material, and interaction ability.

Procedures for Setting up an ELP TA Exam

For both Role Play and Mini-Lecture exams:

1. The department lets the student know that an ELP TA exam is required.
2. The department arranges a time and a place for the exam with the ELP director, Rosa Brefeld (314-935-4813 or rosa_brefeld@aismail.wustl.edu )
3. For mini-lecture exams and role play exams, the department arranges for a faculty member to be present at the exam. This allows the examiners to be sure that the content of the presentation was appropriately addressed and allows the department an opportunity to get to know the student's verbal strengths and weaknesses in an academic setting.
4. The department notifies the student of the time and place of the exam.
5. Any student scoring below a grade of 4 (equivalent to "could handle teaching a class by him/herself") will be required to take and pass all courses recommended or required before being approved for teaching as a teaching assistant. To pass a course, a grade of B- or higher will be required. The option to take the course pass/fail will not be permitted.
6. Students who failed the ELP TA exam and are taking course work may be supported by teaching assistantships as graders (or in performance of other work related to teaching but not requiring contact with undergraduates) for a maximum of two semesters.