NONNATIVE ENGLISH-SPEAKING TEACHING ASSISTANTS AND STUDENT PERFORMANCE

In recent years, much concern has been expressed about the quality of instruction provided by foreign teaching assistants (TAs) in higher education. Critiques of the use of foreign TAs generally argue that they often impede the learning process because of language barriers. The present study examines the effect that nonnative English-speaking TAs had on student performance over five semesters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Multiple ordinary least squares regression is used to analyze the relationship between student grades and nonnative English-speaking TAs. Subsamples based on a TA's geographic region of origin and instructional area are also analyzed. In addition, course drop rates and the impact of TA training programs are examined to determine possible influence on the results. The results of the analysis consistently indicate slightly better performance in sections conducted by nonnative English-speaking TAs. © 1991 Human Sciences Press, Inc.