ALS 5780

International Teaching Assistant Program Course

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2026-2027 Catalog.

The International Teaching Assistant Program's (ITAP) foundational course, ALS 5780, provides an opportunity for multilingual graduate students to develop the oral communication skills necessary to be successful in their graduate programs, with emphasis on the skills they may need for teaching in the Cornell classroom. Through weekly classes, conferences with instructors, peer feedback and weekly assignments, students will work on advancing their oral English comprehensibility, pronunciation accuracy and improve their impromptu speaking skills. This course is designed for those working towards meeting the Language Proficiency requirement for teaching at Cornell University.

Prerequisites International Teaching Assistant (ITA) Language Assessment or permission of International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP).

Enrollment Information Enrollment limited to: graduate students who plan to serve as teaching assistants (TA), with priority given based on immediacy of TA assignment.

Last 4 Terms Offered 2026FA, 2026SP, 2025FA, 2025SP

Learning Outcomes

• Narrate and describe in all major time frames.
• Engage in spontaneous conversation about topics of personal and general interest/current events.
• Accurately communicate ideas to listeners who are not accustomed to talking to non-native speakers.
• Speak in paragraphs, using connected discourse.
• Self-assess one's own oral language proficiency.

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