Project Overview
This project successfully transformed the Open Educational Resource (OER) "Oral Communication for Non-Native Speakers of English" from a pronunciation-focused resource into a comprehensive oral communication toolkit for international teaching assistants (ITAs) and non-native English speakers.
The second edition will serve as a foundational resource for GR ST 5400 instructors and the CCE oral communication consultants who work with international teaching assistants and graduate students. This resource will significantly reduce dependency on supplementary commercial materials previously needed to address the full spectrum of oral communication skills required by non-native English speakers in academic settings.
Outcomes
The enhanced OER has improved student learning outcomes in the following ways:
- Sustained Resource Access: These materials, which were previously unavailable after course completion, allow students to continue developing their speaking proficiency throughout their teaching assistantship, addressing challenges specific to their disciplines and teaching scenarios. Students can now reference these speaking resources whenever they encounter communication difficulties in their roles as teaching assistants.
- Comprehensive Skill Development: Students now benefit from integrated learning across listening, speaking, and pronunciation domains, leading to more balanced oral communication skills.
- Enhanced Classroom Participation & Engagement: Instructors report that students demonstrate greater confidence and engagement in classroom interactions. For example, one of the instructors stated: “What I really liked about it was that there are activities that engage students with more than just repeating or imitating the target sounds”
- Greater Autonomy: The self-paced nature and well-organized content (evaluated as 4.33 on a 1-5 scale in the post publication survey) of many activities can empower students to take ownership of their learning journey. Impacts on their future oral communication development are yet to be seen, as these will be evident in upcoming semesters.
- Increased Accessibility: The improved visual design and interactive elements have made content more accessible to diverse learning styles (evaluated at 4.67 on a 1-5 scale in the survey)