Pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 211 adopted by the 1984 General Assembly, the
accreditation standards of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (4.4.1),
and the Tennessee Board of Regents (Policy No. 5:02:01:03) MTSU requires all graduate
teaching assistants (GTA) to demonstrate competency in spoken English.
Specifically, Graduate Teaching Assistants whose first language is not English are
required to demonstrate an appropriate level of fluency in one of the following manners.
- Submission of a minimum score of 21 on the Speaking subscale of the iBT TOEFL for
appointment where the GTA has direct verbal interactions with students.
- Submission of a minimum score of 26 on the Speaking subscale of the iBT TOEFL for
appointment where the GTA presents lectures in the class or laboratory (A GTA presenting
a score of 25 may be assigned to instructional duties on a probationary status for
one semester. 1)
- Submission of a minimum score of 6.5 on the Speaking subscale of the academic version
of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test.
- Submission of a minimum score of 40 on the Test of Spoken English (TSE) or the Speaking
Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK) for appointment where the GTA has direct
verbal interactions with students.
- Submission of a minimum score of 50 on the Test of Spoken English (TSE) or the Speaking
Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK) for appointment where the GTA presents
lectures in the class or laboratory. (GTA presenting a score of 45 may be assigned
to instructional duties on a probationary status for one semester. 1)
1 GTAs assigned instructional duties on a probationary status must be observed by a
member of their department and a faculty member from another department to establish
that they are successful in the performance of their teaching duties. Written
verification of agreement among the two observers that the GTA is sufficiently fluent
in English must be submitted to the College of Graduate Studies before the GTA
may be assigned teaching duties in a subsequent term.
NOTE -Date of test score must be no more than two years prior to first semester at
MTSU.