LETTERS: Taking steps to improve TAs English skills

To the Editor: But your article gave readers an inaccurate picture of three facts. First, it is state law which is "ambiguous," not Penn's regulations. Check out the detailed description of what an ITA must do to meet Penn's fluency standard on our homepage, "http://www.sas.upenn.edu/ELP". Second, Penn's certification process is very challenging, not something ITAs can "slip by." Two tests are required. The first, the Speaking Performance English Assessment Kit, is a standardized test designed by Education Testing Service, the firm responsible for GREs and GMATs. SPEAK records 20 minutes of the testee's spontaneous speech -- everything from social exchanges to giving opinions on abstract topics -- and is scored "blind." The other, unique to Penn, is a 10-minute micro-lesson with interruptions and questions from three professional raters trained to challenge, listen and judge. The final fact is that Penn's ITA language-training programs are rigorous. Surnmer participants spend 20 hours per week for two months working on intelligibility, public speaking, social interaction and effective ways of teaching Americans, and there is a follow-up course in the fall. ITAs who opt for training show their determination to be good teachers. Communicating in English as an international language requires extra concentration from speaker and listener. That said, a major research university has an obligation to attract the most gifted faculty and scholars. Because many will be international, different varieties of English are an inescapable fact of academic life at Penn. Through experience most people learn how to tune in more easily, replacing what you described as "snickering" with more sophisticated communication strategies. Building such skills should be a conscious goal for most Penn students, as they prepare for key roles in global business or scientific environments. Last summer, the DP staff was invited to experience first-hand the testing process or a class in our ITA training program. We now renew this invitation and extend it to anyone who is interested. Also, we welcome questions, suggestions, or real-life class experiences -- just contact me at mjulian@sas.upenn.edu. Mary Ann Julian, Ph. D Asst. Dir., Univ. Service Programs Penn English Language Programs Suicide stuns students To the Editor: Regardless of one's political convictions or personal values, the self-immolation of Kathy Change demonstrates the capacity for human suffering and the pervasiveness of indifference. It may be easy for some to dismiss Change as disturbed, and she evidently was -- disturbed by the injustice, violence, human and environmental degradation and apathy she saw woven into the socioeconomic fabric of society. These problems are not only abstract issues, but part of everyday life, confronting us on the streets and in the news (e.g., crime, gun violence, homelessness, pollution, etc.) However, just as paramount as the problems are efforts to address them. In the Penn tradition of integrating knowledge and practice, we are privileged to have the opportunity and the responsibility to lead by example. Ultimately, such leadership entails self-examination and determinination of purpose. In the daily rush to meet deadlines, get ahead or even help others, can we afford to neglect the people suffering in our midst? Here is a story I would like to share: As a young man walked along the beach at dawn, he noticed an old man picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up with the old man, the young man asked him why he was doing this. The old man answered that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun. "But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish," countered the young man. "How can your effort make any difference?" The old man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. "It makes a difference to this one." Change's life and death not only beg the question of what each one of us would be willing to die for, but perhaps more importantly, what are we willing to live for? Amy Lim Schwander Education Doctoral Student u To the Editor: I am troubled by the reaction of some members of the community to Kathy Change's suicide. "A final moment" (34th Street, 10/24/96) attempts to portray Change as a rational person so committed to a cause that she choose martyrdom to further that cause. Unfortunately, it is very hard to find evidence of any legitimate cause in Change's writing. Although she was a talented writer, as is evident from the suicide letter quickly becoming her legacy, there was no "cause," only the jumbled ramblings of a person apparently suffering from some sort of mental illness. Change's suicide was not heroic. There is an irony here in that a person who wanted to be remembered as someone who struggled for peace has inflicted extreme violence and trauma on those persons who witnessed her insane act. The sights, sounds and smells associated with a human body enveloped in flames have been inflicted on many innocent victims. The trauma associated with that horror will be with them forever. I did not know Change, but she certainly had value, as do all living beings. Somewhere there must be family and friends who loved her, who are sickened by her act. I am not filled with guilt about not having done more for her, and I have no need to elevate her to sainthood, as many on campus are trying to. She best describes her own act: "Senseless, a wanton waste by a perverted ego demanding attention and deification." The Penn community would be wrong to deify Change or romanticize her death. She was a confused, sick person. She led no social movement, and she had no followers or organization. In the end, she betrayed her own stated nonviolent beliefs by committing a violent injustice upon the 100 or so innocent persons who were forced to witness her last cry for attention. That is her only legacy. Jose Rendon Social Work Doctoral Student Faculty/Staff Asst. Prog. Counselor