ITAIS Newsletter, October 2026
Letter From the Editors
Sarah Emory, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Elka KristóNagy, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
Letter from the Chair
Kyle Swanson, Ph.D., Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Letter from the Chair-Elect
Eva Miszoglad, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
Letters from Community Event Organizers and myTESOL Manager
Jen Brondell Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA
Jaime-Erin Parry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut , USA
Qiusi Zhang, Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
Active Learning in ITA Courses: Challenges, Misconceptions, and Solutions
Alejandro Azocar, Heidi Evans, and Danielle Scheffler, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Active learning is widely endorsed but implementing it can be challenging for international teaching assistants navigating new classroom cultures. This article explores the linguistic and pedagogical obstacles ITAs face. Discover how a scaffolded microteaching sequence helps novice instructors build the confidence and skills needed for student-centered teaching.
A Case for Practice-Based Research in ITA Assessment: Co-Constructing a Research Agenda
Kate Yaw, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
Tania Ferronato, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA
Jihye Kim,University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA
International teaching assistants (ITAs) play a key role in US higher education, providing benefits to US universities (e.g., cultural exchange, diverse perspectives) beyond their teaching contributions (e.g., Sahranavard & Du, 2022). Given that ITAs are also frequently L2 English users, many states have mandated English proficiency requirements in order to be employed in student-facing roles, leading to the need for, and growth in, various approaches to ITA assessment. In the current article, we argue that this situation also leads to opportunities for research that combines the perspectives of ITA practitioners and researchers.
Virtual Reality and ITA Hometown Presentations
Frederick Dunn, Oral English Proficiency Program, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN USA
When I was first introduced to virtual reality (VR), I was skeptical. However, the discovery of the app Wooorld changed my perspective on the possibilities that VR brings to the language learning classroom. As VR headsets become more common in education, educators would benefit from a shared community where educators review VR applications from a teaching perspective rather than a gaming perspective.
AI, Agency, and Access: Musings
Jen Brondell Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA
When I was first introduced to virtual reality (VR), I was skeptical. However, the discovery of the app Wooorld changed my perspective on the possibilities that VR brings to the language learning classroom. As VR headsets become more common in education, educators would benefit from a shared community where educators review VR applications from a teaching perspective rather than a gaming perspective.