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Information for International Graduate Students at Purdue

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Resources for Graduate Students in ESL:

Purdue University Graduate School

Purdue University enjoys a population of over 3,000 international graduate students.  Typically the most accomplished graduates of their home countries, international students bring an essential diversity of culture to the campus and thus enrich our total academic environment. 

The Oral English Proficiency Program (OEPP) at Purdue University is the academic unit on campus that oversees the university policy on international teaching assistants.

The OEPP:

• provides oral English proficiency screening services to all departments on campus employing non-native English speaking TAs;
• certifies the oral English proficiency of TAs whose first language is not English; and
• offers English as a second language instruction to prospective TAs.

The mission of the OEPP is to provide a supportive environment which allows Purdue's international students develop academic English proficiency across a wide array of domains and contexts. 
 

The OEPP offers graduate students with an interest in ESL many opportunities to further their own research interests in a dynamic environment devoted to assisting others.  Each semester we hire a number of graduate students, many themselves international teaching assistants, to hold a variety of assistantships including:

• test administrators and raters;
• classroom instructors;
• tutorial instructors;
• computer programmers; and
• research assistants.

In addition, the OEPP has resources available in support of research in such areas as language acquisition and language testing.

In the OEPP we are always looking for ways to improve what we do.  We welcome, encourage, and support TA participation in these efforts by offering:

• the opportunity to receive travel grants to help fund participation in professional conferences;
• opportunities to develop the our course curriculum;
• the opportunity to assist with special projects as needed.  Past projects have included converting OEPP instructional materials to a computer-based system, developing rater-training materials, revising instructor and tutorial manuals, and participating in a comprehensive study of the employment of ITAs on campus.

The OEPP is an ideal environment for students to grow academically and professionally while supporting others in their efforts to do the same.

Visit our employment opportunities web page to learn more about teaching assistantships available in the Oral English Proficiency Program.

Are you an applicant to Purdue University's English as a Second Language Program?  If so, and you are interested in an assistantship with the Oral English Proficiency Program, be sure to indicate this in the Statement of Purpose you are required to submit as part of your graduate application packet.

Please visit the English as a Second Language website to learn more about graduate studies in ESL at Purdue.  

OEPP Staff

Abstracts of Research Conducted by OEPP Staff