Teaching assistants help diversify language learning

  Every year Muskingum University hosts a wide array of international students from all over the globe. Among these students are four teaching assistants from Spain, Argentina, Germany, and France. These teaching assistants aid the Muskingum Department of Modern Languages in educating students on culture and the spoken dialect; depending on the language the students choose to study.

  "In my university in Toulon, I had the choice between three universities," said French assistant Guillaume Vidal. "I had always had this dream to go to the United States; I've been having it for a long time so I thought it was a good opportunity to do it."

  Something these four individuals had in common was their desire to come to the United States and to learn about the culture and the English language that they have been studying most of their lives.

  "My university has a relationship with Muskingum University, and it was a good opportunity to travel to another place and also to work and have new experiences in another country," said Spanish assistant Candelaria Busca-Sust.

  Coming from two distinct continents, four very different countries and backgrounds, the teaching assistants bring to Muskingum new views of the world around us as well as experience in their mother tongue. This experience is just what language students here on campus need in order to become more proficient and articulate when it comes to speaking ability in French, Spanish, and German.

  "I think it's interesting to have people speaking a foreign language and the fact that they are native is something that is good from a phonetic point of view," said Vidal. "I think it's very good that we, in a sense, know our language very well most of the time and so it's very interesting to have native people explaining their own languages even if it's true that native speakers are not always the best suited to teach their own language."

  The TA's main job is to give students practical experience to help them learn a new language.

  "I think people here have an opportunity to listen to and to be able to work with native speakers of a language and they can see the way we are and teach from a native point of view," said Spanish assistant Candido Camacho Sanchez.

  The teaching assistants have the opportunity to work in addition to studying at Muskingum. They are in charge of the conversation classes each week, that first and second year students are required to take, should they choose to take classes in French, German, or Spanish. In small groups, the TA's work with students on how to converse with one another in a foreign language as well as teach them about culture.

  "The most important thing is to make students talk and have a conversations," said Busca-Sust. "That they practice what they have already learned or what they are learning. It is important that they see there are different ways to say words depending on what country you're from."

  The teaching assistants spend one full school year here at Muskingum, giving them time to travel throughout the U.S during their stay.

  "For fall break we are planning to go to Boston and the chances are that in the near future maybe there will be a trip to New York," said Vidal.

  Being so far away from their home countries, the teaching assistants said what they miss most already is the food they're used to and, of course, their families.