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I don't understand the "why" behind colleges hiring staff that students can't understand.
My 15 year old took a placement test for a class (precalculus) at the local state U yesterday. He's looking to take the class over the summer and this was a requirement. The proctor for the test was a TA and I couldn't understand a thing he said to me other than he was a "TA" for the "mash faswent" (math department) when I dropped my kid off to take the test.
When I picked my son up my son said the test went well, but he was reprimanded for not putting his pencil down when the TA called for it. He didn't understand what the guy (grad student) was saying - he wasn't the only one.
My husband went to this same University and has always complained about not being able to understand Professors or TAs due to their thick/heavy accents. And he grew up in house with a father who had a thick and heavy accent, just from a different part of the world than the majority of the professors and TAs came from.
Why hire someone to teach students that the majority of students can't understand?
Last edited by toobusytoday; 03-30-2015 at 06:04 AM..
Reason: removed orphaned sentence
Probably because a significant number of grad students in the STEM fields are foreign nationals.
I understand that at major universities it is part of their "job" in some fields. Doesn't mean they should be put in front of a class if they are hard to understand and due to a language barrier or accent.
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If your son grew up with the TAs, he would be able to understand their thick and heavy accent as well.
It's not the tuition payer's kid who needs to understand the accents of his or her teachers or TAs.
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Since this is a known problem, why are you sending your son there?
It's a summer class and the professor teaching the particular session I registered him for was well researched. By me.
Last edited by Informed Info; 03-30-2015 at 09:53 PM..
It sucks in both situations. When you have a professor/TA that is difficult to understand and when you have a student that is difficult to understand. At least with a professor/TA it's understandable why they might be hired. But accepting a student that is difficult to understand should only be allowed in the most extreme circumstances.
I wouldn't worry about the reprimanding. It's not meaningful. Is it impacting his ability to learn? That's the real question.
The colleges are well aware of the difficulty. When one of my sons was at orientation, he had a 504 plan in place due to a learning disability. His advisor went through his schedule and changed all the classes he had with foreign-born professors. He figured our son would have enough difficulty with lectures without adding in a heavy accent.
Nothing new, it was the same at my state university in 1975. Many of the instructors, especially in the Business Department, were Indian and a couple from Jamaica (maybe, somewhere in the islands).
If you are teaching classes through speaking lectures in English, there should be a proficiency test involved. You may have the best credentials, but if you can't communicate the information, it is a disservice to students. Students are paying these schools handsomely to take these classes and expect to be able to understand what the lecturer is saying. In situations like this political correctness benefits no one!
I found it difficult to learn Calculus and Fortran IV from professors whose Chinese and Czech accents made their spoken English near impossible to understand.
When my son was in college he had a professor teaching physics which he couldn't understand. Went for extra help and did everything he could to pass the test. Unfortunately he was given a D which could affect his scholarship. He took a summer course and passed with an A, as the professor was not foreign born. When you are paying the ridiculous amount of tuition and students are in so much debt before they graduate, they should be given professors that they can understand.
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