STUDENTS BEHIND BILL REQUIRING TEACHER PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH

Wendy Maguire and her cohorts believe that when foreign teachers are brought into an American college classroom, students have a right to learn the material in clear English.

Officials at Southeast Missouri State and the University of Missouri-Columbia said they already provide for that right with proficiency tests for graduate assistants who weren't brought up or didn't have access to an English-speaking background.

A 1986 law brought about requirements to ensure colleges adhered to the principle.

So why does Maguire, a University of Missouri-Columbia student, feel additional legislation is needed?

"If the first bill that requires graduate teaching assistants works so well, why not make it so that it includes all teachers in a university?" Maguire, who is a member of the Associated Students of Missouri University, said.

The organization is backing the bill proposed by Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau that provides additional testing measures. Associated Students of Missouri University represents all four campuses: Columbia, Rolla, St. Louis and Kansas City.

When Maguire hears there aren't enough statistics to support the need for the bill Kinder is introducing for newly hired faculty and teaching assistants, she flashes a wide grin.

"There are some students who might want to complain about not being able to understand a foreign instructor, but instead of going to the dean of that department, they might just go home and cry," she said. "When you make a complaint and it dies in the dean's office, you begin to feel frustrated. This bill gives you the right to take it much further. You have the right to sue to have the education you're paying for."

Senate Bill 316 not only calls for graduate teaching assistants to demonstrate proficiency in English, both in an oral and written test, but any foreign instructor a university hires.

A $10,000 cut in state funding to a higher education institution for each class taught by an instructor who hasn't passed a national English test, is also in the bill. The test would have to be approved by the Board for Higher Education.

Kinder said the idea of his bill is to strengthen existing laws.

"I suspect it would be less of a problem at Southeast than the University of Missouri," Kinder said. "The reason I introduced the bill is because of what I heard from a group called U.S. English and also testimony that came from students at the University of Missouri." U.S. English is a Washington-based group.

"This isn't some attempt to get rid of foreign instructors," Maguire said. "We're just saying that every student is entitled to something that should be automatic anyway. It's ironic that we would even have to pass a bill to give students that right."

Jill Scoggins, spokeswoman for Missouri University-Columbia, said the school won't take a position on the bill. However, Scoggins said there is an oral and written test for teaching assistants that has kept complaints to a minimum.

"The last complaint made by a student was in 1990," Scoggins said. "What we try to do is ask the student to wait a week before filing a formal complaint because many times it just takes a few days to get used to another accent or way of speaking."

Kinder is also sponsoring two bills that deal with the English language in an academic setting. One is calling for English to be designated as the state's official language. The other would require public schools to tell parents of the "pupil's right to receive instruction exclusively in the English language."

Southeast Missouri State Dean of Graduate Studies Sheila Caskey said all graduate assistants are required to complete at least one semester of training. They are also evaluated each semester by students and mentors.

Caskey said that in Missouri, international students aren't allowed to teach during their first semester in residence and are never allowed to teach until their language skills have been validated by a standardized test.

Caskey said less than 3 percent of instruction at Southeast is by teaching assistants.