An analysis of non-native English-speaking graduate teaching assistants' online journal entries

There has been increasing acknowledgment of the need to pursue studies related to nonnative English-speaking (NNES) professionals. In the last 10 years, a number of studies have discussed the experiences of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in different educational settings and situations. However, the experiences of the NNES graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) teaching predominantly monolingual, White, native English-speaking preservice teachers have not been researched. This paper presents the analysis of personal journal entries in the form of weblogs of three NNES GTAs. The study reports on the experiences shared by these NNES GTAs. Findings will consequently contribute to a better understanding of the experiences, mainly challenges, faced by the NNES GTAs and will be used to offer suggestions and recommendations to teacher education programs and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) educators to evaluate the sources of support the NNES GTAs receive before or during their teaching. The study will also signify the need for the inclusion of the issues related to cultural and linguistic diversity throughout the whole curriculum of preservice teacher education programs and not in just a few courses.