In accordance with the English Fluency in Higher Education Act, the University is required to certify the English fluency of all instructors hired since September 7, 1990 to the Department of Education of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. You should read Policy Number 02-02-16 and the corresponding Procedure Number 02-02-16 for University guidelines on this important matter. Please reference form CERTIFICATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE FLUENCY FOR TEACHING.
Certification of Faculty, Instructional Staff and other academic employees is to be conducted within the individual's department. Certification of Teaching Assistants and Teaching Fellows is also the responsibility of the individual's department. However, in the case of non-native English speaking individuals, departments must arrange for a test of the individual's spoken English which is administered by the English Language Institute (ELI). Guidelines for departmental certification state that before an individual teaches a class, an evaluation of his/her English language fluency must be performed through two personal interviews. One of these interviews should be conducted by a senior member of the department, the second by the Chair (or his/her designee if necessary). These interviews should take place before the individual is offered an appointment.
Although some exemptions to Certification exist, you must keep in mind that although the exemption may apply in the initial term, it may not apply in future terms. Also, when a person will not be assigned to teach a lecture, seminar, recitation, or laboratory, that individual's form may be certified as "No" (i.e., will not teach). However, a monitoring system has been put into place that will match individual teaching responsibilities to individual English fluency via the Faculty Activity Report procedures. In the event a newly appointed individual will not or cannot teach initially and therefore is not certified to do so, it is your responsibility to follow-up on the necessary certification procedures prior to any teaching duties being assigned to that individual.
All appointments of new faculty (both full-time and part-time) must be accompanied by the Certification Form. Those appointments not containing this form cannot be processed. Service requests for paychecks for individuals for whom the payroll deadline was not met due to lack of the Certification form will not be honored. Since interviews to assess English fluency should take place prior to an offer of appointment, there should be no difficulty in having the form available at the time your payroll administrator prepares the Appointment Form.
The responsibility for the certification of English language fluency rests at the department level. Please be sure that adequate procedures are adopted in your department to assure compliance with these new requirements.
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Non-Native Speaker Interview Scale for TA/TF Certification |
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5 Very Good |
Maintains effectively his or her part in a conversation. Initiates and elaborates where needed. Has few traces of a foreign accent and almost no grammar errors. Understands everything without difficulty. |
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4 Good |
Converses and logically and can respond to changes in tonic or topic. Some hesitation and repetition but interacts effectively. Pronunciation always intelligible, though one is conscious of a definite foreign accent. Makes a few grammar errors, which do not obscure meaning, and appears to understand nearly everything without difficulty. |
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3 Fair |
Is able to maintain theme of conversation and follow topic switches. Stumbles or hesitates at times. Pronunciation problems necessitate concentrated listening and at times lead to understanding. Makes occasional grammar and word order errors which can obscure meaning. Understands nearly everything with repetitions necessary from time to time. |
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2 Limited |
Lacks flexibility and initiative in conversation. Needs to ask for repetition and clarification and to be asked for them. Copes, but not well. Hard to understand because of pronunciation problems. Makes frequent grammar errors which obscure meaning. Understands most of what is said at a slower-than-normal pace. |
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1 Poor |
Can maintain conversation in a passive manner, rarely taking initiative. In touch with the gist of the conversation. Pronunciation problems are very marked and often makes speech unintelligible. Must restrict him/herself to basic grammar patterns and rephrase often. Has great difficulty understanding other than "social conversation" and requires frequent repetitions and very slow speech. |
Certification is to be made by the department chair in larger units or the academic dean in smaller units. You may not certify a non-native English-speaking Teaching Assistant or Teaching Fellow (TA/TF) until he or she has received a passing score on the English Language Comprehensibility test administered by the English Language Institute (ELI). This test will be an interview test designed to assess proficiency in spoken English communication, lasting about one half hour and administered and graded by two members of the ELI staff. A faculty member from the TA/TF's department will be present to participate in the interview so that material generic to the discipline and to the teaching assignments of the TA/TF can be covered during the interview. Each TA/TF will be scored using the attached Non-Native Speaker Interview Scale for TA/TF Certification and must attain scores of 4 or 5 to be assigned as recitation or independent course instructors and 3 as laboratory instructors.
Certification of a faculty member who is a non-native speaker of English, one whose first acquired language is not English, is made after the person has been interviewed by both the academic dean or department chair and a senior member of the faculty. These interviews should occur before the person is offered an appointment. The person is certified if his or her level of English is completely adequate for effective communication with the student who will take courses in the academic center or department. Each academic center or department may determine individual guidelines for conducting such interviews. Before conducting these interviews, you may find it useful to study the scoring scale we are using for TA/TFs (see attachment). The person should in your judgment be able to attain at least a four to be certified. You may also determine whether further assessment is necessary, such as a presentation to faculty and students.
A person who will not teach a lecture, seminar, recitation or laboratory should be certified as "No," the appointee will not teach. Similarly, a person who has not performed satisfactorily on the English fluency assessment is not permitted to teach and you must ensure this does not occur. If, at a later time, the appointee's English has improved sufficiently, a new form must be submitted to Faculty Records certifying that the appointee is certified to teach. This must be done before the person starts teaching. All persons teaching a lecture, seminar, recitation or laboratory must be certified as fluent in English; the only exemption permitted is if the person will only teach courses in which the primary language of instruction is not English.