Latitudes: How One College Focuses on Ethics and Equity in English-Language Testing

Readers’ thoughts on English-proficiency testing, plus no new trial for a professor convicted as part of the China Initiative. ADVERTISEMENT [Latitudes Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. This professor overhauled English testing for TAs on her campus When Amy S. Thompson came to West Virginia University four years ago as chair of world languages, literatures, and linguistics, she was struck by the institution’s approach to assessing the English proficiency of international graduate teaching assistants. All but a handful of students from Anglophone countries were required to pass an English-speaking test in order to teach. But while prospective teaching assistants from places like Britain, Canada, and Ireland were exempt, others from countries where the official language is also English, such as students from Nigeria, had to take the test. The policy struck Thompson, who oversees the university’s English-language-learning institute, as inconsistent and inequitable. So, with the support of other administrators from graduate studies and global affairs, she set about to change it. This fall, West Virginia University began using an expanded waiver list, which exempts graduate students from a number of English-speaking African and Caribbean countries from the testing requirement. If the new policy works well, in a couple of years Thompson hopes to add even more countries to the waiver list. Thompson was one of many readers to reach out to me after I ran a Q&A in a [recent newsletter]( with a researcher who argued that the oral English exams required of many teaching assistants don’t actually measure intelligibility and are an unfair burden to international graduate students. “There’s cultural performance that is demanded in these tests,” the researcher, Edwin K. Everhart of the University of Pittsburgh, told me. Like Everhart, Thompson, who has [written about linguistic racism]( has concerns about fairness in English testing and learning. Such policies should be applied “ethically and equitably,” she said. Yet, unlike Everhart, Thompson is not calling to scrap proficiency tests. (In fact, she’d like to require every teaching assistant, Americans included, to do a teaching demonstration before they go into a classroom, although she acknowledges it’s not feasible at a research university like hers.) Teaching is tough work, and it’s important to know that graduate students are ready for the task, she told me. Instead, Thompson has been working to ease some of the barriers English-proficiency testing can cause. In another policy change, WVU no longer requires international graduate students who earn certain minimum scores on the speaking section of the Toefl or Ielts, standardized English tests used in admission, to take a second exam to begin working as teaching assistants. For all others, the university has adopted a new proficiency test, one that Thompson said is both accurate in its assessment and can be taken remotely via Zoom before students even come to campus. The early exam reduces uncertainty; rather than testing students in the short window before classes begin, both students and their departments know that they have the go-ahead to teach. Thompson hopes to find funding to help defray the costs of proficiency exams for students. Making testing more equitable is not the only focus of her efforts. With her colleagues in the English language center, she has been working to develop workshops that help faculty members better understand different communication models around the globe and disparate cultural norms about issues like plagiarism. International graduate teaching assistants, Thompson said, “are not a problem that needs to be fixed. They are an extraordinary resource.” ADVERTISEMENT More readers weigh in As I mentioned, the Q&A generated a lot of reader response. Look for some of the ideas you shared, especially around English-language instruction, in future reporting. Meanwhile, here’s a sampling of some of the comments I got: Several readers shared concerns that bias might play a part in how international students’ English proficiency is assessed. “The status of English in academia demonstrates the subtle persistence of colonialism,” wrote Michael Woolf, deputy president for strategic development at CAPA: The Global Education Network. He argues that there is pressure on international students and scholars to conform to “standard” English to be successful: “The primacy of these forms of English are needed to publish, pass examinations across the globe, and to be appointed to TA positions.” Nadia Mann, assistant dean of international programs at Franklin & Marshall College, said an emphasis on “grammatical correctness” rather than effective communication — a point raised in the original piece — can happen in the undergraduate classroom, not just in the context of English-language testing. She shared an incident in which a South Asian student, who had studied in English since primary school, came to her in tears after a professor told her to get ESL help. When Mann read through the student’s paper, she couldn’t find a single error — the student was simply using the grammatical rules and vocabulary of British, not American, English that she had learned in school. “I’ve never, ever seen a white student who followed British English standards get feedback like this,” Mann added. Bob Eckhart, a Fulbright scholar in Moldova and a former executive director of English as a second language programs at Ohio State University, called the newsletter “triggering.” Among many points, he said he believed some students “scapegoat” international teaching assistants when they do poorly in a class, noting that, in his experience, complaints about difficulty understanding teaching assistants fall as institutional selectivity increases. International graduate students also now often arrive with stronger speaking skills than in the past because of improved preparation in their home countries and greater exposure to English through media, Eckhart said. Happily, a number of foreign-born academics wrote in with more positive stories, saying they had not encountered problems in the classroom even though English was not their first language. Among them was Mirta Carruthers, who teaches psychoanalysis at Howard University and grew up in Argentina speaking Spanish with an Italian “touch.” In more than 25 years of teaching, “I rarely, if ever, have I had a rejection or even impatience as a reaction to my accent,” Carruthers wrote. “My students have told me in numerous occasions that because what I teach is interesting, it is easy to make the effort to understand what I say in spite of my accent.” I’m always interested in your feedback, on this and any international-ed topic. Send your thoughts and your suggestions to me at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. Judge denies request for new trial in China Initiative conviction A federal judge has denied Harvard University professor Charles M. Lieber’s motion for acquittal or a new trial in his conviction in his China Initiative case. Lieber, a former chairman of Harvard’s chemistry department, was [found guilty]( in December 2021 for lying to the U.S. government about his ties to China. His case was a rare conviction under the China Initiative, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of academic and economic espionage with China. The Biden administration has since [ended the inquiry]( with a top official saying that the prosecutions of researchers, most whom were of Chinese or Asian descent, “can lead to a chilling atmosphere for scientists and scholars that damages the scientific enterprise in this country.” In denying Lieber’s request, United States District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel [ruled]( that even if errors had been made on certain evidentiary questions during the professor’s trial, “a new trial would still not be warranted because the volume of evidence was so great that ‘it is highly probable that the error did not contribute to the verdict.’” The Harvard Crimson [reports]( that Lieber is scheduled to be sentenced on January 11, 2023. “We’re not giving up the fight,” his lawyer told the student paper. Around the globe Colleges formerly accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools will receive notices from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about the impact the [revocation]( of federal recognition of the accreditor will have on their ability to enroll international students, the department said in a [message](. Are you at an Acics-accredited institution? [Let me know how the change could affect your Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification](mailto:karin.fischer@chronicle.com). A professor at Allegheny College, in Pennsylvania, has filed a federal [employment-discrimination complaint]( after the college cut its Chinese studies minor and terminated her, the lone tenured professor of Chinese. The Chinese government has accused the United States of [cyberattacks]( on a university that conducts military-related research. Escalating rhetoric and shifting policy on China is to the “detriment of what has once been [American higher ed’s] comparative advantage as being a magnet for international talent and innovation,” a Cornell University political scientist said in a recent [podcast](. International students who earn degrees in fields with significant skills shortages will be able to stay in Australia for a longer period after graduation, the government [announced](. Australia will review its chief non-medical research-funding agency amid concerns about [political interference]( in the awarding of grants. Human-rights groups are calling on the Saudi government to [release]( a graduate student sentenced to more than three decades in prison for social-media posts in favor of women’s rights. Concerns about the safety of students and professors in [Ethiopia’s Tigray region]( are increasing after fighting resumed between the government and rebel forces. A government audit office in Hungary has published a report warning that [higher numbers of female college graduates]( could endanger the country’s economy and disadvantage men. Despite Covid-19, Canada didn’t face an international-enrollment crash, higher-ed expert Alex Usher reports in his [comprehensive overview]( of the current state of Canadian postsecondary education. ADVERTISEMENT And finally … “Not even death can exempt you from TSA screening.” For all you frequent fliers, [this one’s for you](. Thanks for reading. I always welcome your feedback and ideas for future reporting, so drop me a line, at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. 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