【Article by EMI Resource Centre】

To train teaching assistants (TAs) for the University's EMI courses, the EMI Resource Centre (EMI Centre) held the first training workshop of the semester on October 14. It was conducted in English by Gina Jin, the writing consultant at the Centre, currently a doctoral candidate at the University and an experienced trainer of TAs for EMI courses. The workship attracted a large number of student participants.

In her brief opening remarks, the Centre’s Director Dr. Mei-Chuan Wei noted that enthusiastic and capable teaching assistants make a significant contribution both to the promotion of EMI courses and to students' learning. She emphasized that the EMI TA training program which consists of two in-person workshops together with online video viewing and a quiz aims to ensure that TAs receive the training needed for being valuable assistants to course instructors.

Gina Jin began the workshop with a detailed introduction to the role and responsibilities of a TA, then explained the key aspects and issues TAs should focus on when guiding students through the learning process. These include identifying the main difficulties and challenges students face in a course, and then guiding students to think for themselves about where the problem comes from and how to solve it. Gina Jin stressed that a TA's role is to help students solve problems; TAs should therefore guide students rather than hand them ready-made solutions. She also emphasized that TAs must respect the boundaries of their authority: if a question raised by a student falls within the instructor's purview, the TA should not make the decision on the instructor's behalf.

The talk was followed by group discussions and role-play. In the first session, each group discussed questions relating to three scenarios set by the speaker, after which a representative from each group shared the group's conclusions with the other participants. The second session was role-play. Working in groups of three, participants took on the roles of TA, student, and observer. The student role was further divided into three types: “underconfident,” “mistaken” (misunderstanding the course content or overconfident), and “over-reliant.” When the role-play ended, participants who had acted as observers shared what they had observed.

Gina Jin pointed out that a TA first needs to get a sense of which type a given student belongs to, since interacting with different types of students calls for different approaches. Taking the over-reliant student as an example, she stressed that TAs dealing with this type must keep reminding themselves not to “solve the problem for the student,” but instead to guide the student toward understanding the problem and finding a solution. With underconfident students, Gina Jin emphasized that the TA's particular role is to encourage them and provide the support they need. And how should a TA interact with students who misunderstand the course content or are overconfident? A measured discussion or debate in which the TA clarifies their own understanding is sufficient, Gina Jin said; there is no need to challenge the student excessively or keep debating.

The Centre’s Director Dr. Mei-Chuan Wei wrapped up the workshop, encouraging the student participants with the reminder that when it comes to language ability, “If you don't use it, you lose it.” She also stressed that language expression and communication skills are key factors in the effectiveness of EMI courses, hoping everyone would keep working to improve. Gina Jin also took the opportunity to promote the EMI Centre's writing consultation service and its AI-assisted writing workshops, and warmly invited everyone to sign up.