Michael Powers (PhD) Jun 27, 2009:

"teaching assistant" When an individual that is a "teaching assistant" teaches a foreign language, for example, in a college or university in the US, he or she usually is the course instructor and the supervisor (as I was for 8 years at LSU Baton Rouge and the University of Miami) visits the classroom a couple of times a year to make suggestions as to how to improve and at the same time encourage the TA's performance.

Also, if there is a departmental final exam, the Supervisor is in charge of either writing this exam or meeting with the TA's to make sure that the exam is a group effort.

Likewise, even though in these language courses the TA is also the course instructor, quite often there is an Applied Linguistics Course for Teaching Spanish or whatever the language may be, that is offered simultaneously to the graduate (postgraduate in BE) students, and usually taught by the Supervisor so that different issues can be discussed and guidance can be given.

So, even though teaching assistants in this case are getting professional help, they actually are the instructors of the lower-level (usually the first two semesters) language courses.

Richard McDorman Jun 27, 2009:

Second answer I provided a second answer, in response to your discussion entry; I hope that it helps. I very rarely answer the same question twice, but I made an exception in this case because of your comment. I hope that this does not upset anyone.

David Heim (asker) Jun 27, 2009:

In at least several of the courses, the "profesor especialista" and the "profesor tutor" are the same person.

Henry Hinds Jun 27, 2009:

CONTEXT This would seem to be institution-specific, for which needed CONTEXT would include the name of the institution. Better yet, try to research it yourself because that is what we would have to do.