International teaching assistants’ initiation of negotiations in engineering labs

Abstract

This study explores nonnative English-speaking teaching assistants’ interactional practices in engineering labs. Specifically, this study examines how the international teaching assistants (ITAs) initiate meaning negotiation while interacting with native English-speaking undergraduate students. The data for the study consist of 415 minutes of video-recorded interactions between four ITAs and undergraduate students in the engineering labs of an American university. The qualitative, discourse-driven analysis of the data revealed that the ITAs, initiating negotiations on the students’ turn, employed various unspecific initiators (e.g. ‘what?’) which were least effective in locating a problem. Initiation of negotiations occurred in multiples and was delayed. The findings highlight the importance of second language interactional competence, specifically the knowledge of how to handle a problem in the context of an engineering lab.