7 h use of an increasing number of fweip TAs now complicates the use and dcueropmCnt of TAs themwlvu. The p r o b h c a h fw more thun a quick %nguagejx.'
Rethinking the 'Foreign TA Problem."
Michle F i s h
The late 1940s and the early 1950s saw the establishment of the TA as a permanent member of undergraduate instruction teams at American research-oriented universities. The 1960s and the 1970s witnessed the proliferation of training programs for these TAs. The 1980s seem to be the decade of a new TA challenge: the foreign or non-native speaking TA.
For some universities, this challenge is already several years old. A few have responded with special, usually voluntary, screening and training prog r a m s . Others have not only failed to face the problem but also have abandoned promising remedies. In either case, universities overwhelmingly are treating the "foreign TA problem" in isolation rather than in the context of general policies concerning foreign students, on the one hand, and TAs, on the other. Until such general policies are adopted, unfair and costly burdens will continue to be placed on foreign TAs, a group already struggling to adjust to an alien and demanding environment. For as long as this situation persists, the same burdens will also fall on universities themselves.
The Problem
Why is there a sudden concern about foreign TAs? And-more ominouslywhy do they now seem to represent a problem that needs to be addressed? The issue of foreign TAs is only one result of a significant shift in the demographics of foreign and native graduate students in the United J. D. W. A n d m a (Ed.). .%+niq rk Tmdiq A& F&.