Increasing Aural Skills of International Graduate Students

This paper deals with a successful attempt to improve the linguistic proficiency of international graduate students at Tennessee Technological University. Without proper guidance by skilled English language instructors at the very beginning of their graduate program, these newly arrived students may find themselves at a great disadvantage in the American classroom because they invariably lack the necessary aural comprehension and oral proficiency to take advantage of the learning environment. A pilot program at Tennessee Tech has demonstrated that the international student´s ability to process technical and nontechnical English efficiently in oral and aural modes can be significantly improved without requiring the student to take time-consuming intensive English programs on arrival in the U.S. Concentrated aural practice in the areas of listening acuity, inferencing, and problem solving yielded dramatic gains in proficiency over a relatively short period of time. Graduate faculty members have reported vast improvements in student attitude and in course work, as well as greater ease in communicating with these unusually industrious students.