International teaching assistants’ identity as instructors and rapport with American students

Abstract

This study investigates whether international teaching assistants (ITAs), compared to American teaching assistants (ATAs), lack any rapport norms that may affect their teaching effectiveness and, if yes, what may cause their lack of those teaching rapport norms. Based on the rapport management theory from Spencer-Oatey (2000, 2008), teaching rapport in this study is delineated in terms of valued attributes as well as rights and obligations of both teachers and students. The data of this study consists of one-on-one interviews with 9 ITAs and 11 ATAs in regard to their self-perceived teaching rapport work and norms. The information from the ITA group was elicited in both the contexts of their country of origin and America and that from the ATA group was only in the American context. The comparison of self-perceived teaching rapport norms between the two groups shows that like ATAs, ITAs are familiar with the norms of teacher and student rights and obligations in American teaching. However, different from ATAs, ITAs do not value other teacher and student attributes beyond their perceived obligations for each role. The differences between ITAs’ self-perceived rapport work and norms in America and in their home country suggest that ITAs’ lack of these rapport norms may be caused by their resistance to the expected instructor identity and/or their mixed feelings about how invested they should be in the expected instructor identity. The findings have pedagogical implications for ITA training, second language acquisition, and English for specific purposes.