{"pk":36148,"title":"Closing the Communication Gap Between Undergraduates and International Faculty","subtitle":null,"abstract":"This mixed-method study addressed the “foreign TA problem,” reconceptualizing it as the communication gap, an issue created by multiple parties—including bias originating from undergraduates. Experimental sessions measured undergraduates’ comprehension of 2 brief lessonstaught by an international professor. Between lessons, participants completed 1 of 3 short modules: a bias-stimulation module, a control module, or a linguistic-training module (which confronted both accent misunderstanding and accent bias). While training did not affect comprehension, questionnaire responses revealed a positive effect of training on sociolinguistic attitudes. Follow-up discussion sessions explored undergraduates’ experiences with international faculty and responses to the communication gap. Several important themes emerged from these discussions, including effects on academic plans, negative cognitive effects, and a model of undergraduates’ socialization into accent bias. The article concludes with recommendations specifically geared toward TESOL professionals’ ongoing efforts to close the communication gap, including a greater recognition of undergraduates’ role in perpetuating the gap.","language":"eng","license":null,"keywords":[],"section":"2012 Graduate Student Research Award","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8c38j90m","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Dan","middle_name":"","last_name":"Villarreal","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California, Davis","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2013-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/catesoljournal/article/36148/galley/27000/download/"}]}