W 202 PATTEE Iran again makes no decision on hostage release From our wire services The Iranian Parliament failed again yesterday to reach a decision on the fate of the 52 AMerican hostages in debate that linked the issue with Iran's raging war with Iraq, government sources said. A special envoy from Khomeini's office •visiting Beirut said Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Rajai conveyed this message, directed to Carter, through U.N. Secretary- General Kurt Waldheim during his visit to New York earlier this month. In Washington, State Department officials said there has been no communication from the Ira authorities about the timing of the hostage issue. Rudolf Stajduhar, spokesman for Waldheim, said "I'm not aware of any message 'relayed through the secretary general to Presi dent Carter." • A spokesman for the Majlis said it adjourned after six hours of discussing the hostages, who Castro releases 30 American prisoners , : MIAMI (UPI) Thirty Americans returned to the. United States from Cuban prisons yesterday, complaining of rice and beans and forced confessions and vowing they have learned "what this . thing called liberty and freedom is all * about." , Five of 33 American prisoners pardon ; ed by Fidel Castro Oct. 13 four accus ed, hijackers . and a parole violator were hustled off the freedom flight in handcuffs by U.S. Marshals and taken to the South Florida Federal Correctional Institute. Three others decided to stay in 1 Cuba. ,) "I feel great. Praise the Lord," said Melvin Bailey, one of the first off the / chartered plane that flew the Americans frum Havana to the Tamiami Airport in Miami.. ' "I haven't had a beer in a year," shouted another repatriate as he came down the steps from the plane. Friends and relatives, wearing yellow ribboris and weeping and shoUting for I joy, met the plane: Many waved 1,1 "welcome home" signs. r. * Two of the repatriates Mark. David Rain dance Cloudy and damp today with periods of rain or drizzle likely. The high temperature this afternoon should be sear 50. Light rain possible at times tonight and continued chilly with a low of 39. Cloudy with a couple of lingering showers tomorrow morning, then becoming breezy, with partial clearing during the afternoon. The high tomorrow near 48. Some foreign graduate TAs face language barrier By IRIS NAAR I9aily Collegian Staff Writer Despite complaints by some undergraduate students about language problems of some foreign teaching assistants, administrators disagree about the extent of such problems. "I ddn't think it is a significant pro !Mem," said Joseph Dixon, head of the department of chemistry, referring to the competency in English of foreign graduate students in the chemistry department. . , Dixon said the department is careful arout accepting graduate students and can turn them down if English ability is a serious question. He said almost all foreign graduate students are chosen from countries where English is a se cond language. "We rarely take graduate students where English is, not an important part their training," Dixon said. - A recent University Faculty Senate report says a complaint that surfaces many times among undergraduate students is the inability of graduate assistants to speak English. Dorothy Bordner, coordinator for large lectures in the mathematics department, said some problems do ex ist with the English abilities of a few foi•eign graduate assistants. She said one graduate student was taken out of the classroom this year, and that two` or three weretaken from classes last year. "Language is where the main com plaints have been," Bordner said. 'Bordner said a foreign accent differs from? real communication problem. ",`They're always going to have ac cents," she said. "Just because someone has an accent, you can't keep him out of the classroom." litordner said, however, that a com munication problem is an entirely dif fe .it situation. She said some foreign graduate students in the past could not understand the questions asked of them. "It's not something we like," shesaid. If the department does not have enough American graduate students to plhe as teaching assistants, foreign 4 7.. COPIES the daily spent their 359th day in captivity yesterday. He said the parliament would return to the issue tomorrow. "Khomeini is neither pro-Carter nor pro- Reagan," the envoy said. "He does not want the hostage issue to be decisive •in the American elections. He does not care who wins." The sources said Khomeini now favors the release of the hostages, held since Nov. 4 1979, because they are no longer useful for him in Iran's domestic political game. He used the American captives to defeat the moderate, or so called "pro-American" circles in Iran. • Since that task was more or less completed, the hostages have been a burden, especially in the context of the Iran-Iraq war which finds Tehran badly in need of international goodwill and trading partners. The envoy, who declined to be identified, said Rajai told Waldheim that Khomeini wants to resolve the 359-day-old hostage question but that Contino and Ed King told of being threatened and kept for weeks in solitary confinement until they agreed to sign confessions of drug smuggling. Contino, 27, said he was told he would get off with just a few months if he con fessed to,drug smuggling. "I signed after 54 days in solitary," he said. "They threatened to shoot me. I would have signed a murder statement." King, a former Vietnam combat pilot, said he spent 77 days in solitary confin ment and was promised a light sentence if he signed a confession. "I got 18 years," he said. "You talk about a joke. The trial was unbelievable. They found out I was a combat pilot in Vietnam and they really used that. Doug Miklos said some of the Americans in the Combinado del Este Prison protested when they learned the Castrii giivarnmeat was ptittiag cbnoVicts aboard boats in the Mariel to Key West freedom flotilla. Miklos said their treatment by the Cubans "was definitely repressive." "They fed us the same thing every day rice and beans and one egg every other day," he said. "We've seen the other side of the fence. Now we know what this thing call ed liberty and freedom is all about." Some Caribbean observers feel the prisoner release and Cuba's order en ding the Mariel to Key West refugee sealift Sept. 26 were motivated by Castro's desire to see President Carter re-elected Nov. 4. graduate students must be used, she said. But the department could not discriminate against foreign students. "We're almost forced into using some in the classroom," she said. Monroe Newman, head of the depart ment of economics, said English pro blems are not usually the main reason for student complaints about teaching assistants. He said most students com plain after a term is over, but if they had done so earlier they could have been transferred to a different section. Many students who have voiced com plaints said the foreign graduate teaching assistants taught courses freshmen where required to take. Joel deNeuf (Ist-engineering) said he is having a problem with the recitation instructor in his Math 161 class. "He's almost impossible to unders tand," he said. "He can't understand English well at all." DeNeuf said that because he is profi cient in math he can follow the class, but said some of his classmates seem to just be sitting in the classroom. He said this problem with the recitation instructor may affect his final grade, "because he can't explain problems I don't understand." Diane Schroedei (Ist-secondary education, chemistry option) said she has an Oriental recitation instructor for Math 161. "I can't understand him and he can't understand us," she said. Schroeder said sometimes the instruc tor cannot figure out a question the students are asking him. "I don't think they should even be teaching," she said. "We pay money to come here and they can't even give use someone who speaks English." Bordner said new graduate students can work their way up, but they usually begin in the elementary courses. "They're available, and we have to use them," she said. "We don't have any other possibilities." A fourth-term premedicine student who asked to remain unidentified said she was dissatisfied with her Chemistry • ()Ile • 'aril . • • "•••••,' 41t•••' • .Z• •••••' • • •••• ' • ••••• •-• • • ••• ,•••••7. ; • •: . -.• ' • „ ' • 417,"; "••;"•, .•f• • • . „ • • • 4 - 1"2 4 • ' ' s'v • ' . , • • . ;4 • • " • ' T.., • I,: , „ r ":, • • • . • . • ,S• ea°„4:;'...V.'l / 4 4'4,A*14`1 4!;`' . 1r .!‘ 6,; ', Z74 . .i.' ,,, , , :• , :, , ; , ?i;:h? , . , V44 .....:;4°,`.1.4e4*,,;;':,,P,'144;1 %:;;9,,1i.rik:4144:tt1f:-ii 1 z".;, • t , 4:4..- • 11't•-• 4 '" • -`; "• oaf '• '• Morning has broken Though it is happening a little earlier by the clock these days. the sun still rises east end of town near the intersection of College Avenue and Route 26. Rising over Mount Nittany each morning. This photograph was taken overlooking the out of the dawn mist, a water tower is visible near the center of the picture. 15 lab instructor. She said that on the first day of class, the instructor was so nervous he was shaking. "He couldn't even think in English," she said. "He was very nice, but he didn't have what it takes." The student said the first quiz her class received was very difficult to understand. "They were English words spelled right, but that was as far as it went," she said. She said, however, that after the first quiz the others were perfect In addition, the student said the class never found out what was wrong with the labs they turned in to be graded. "Whenever you asked him a question, he giggled," she said. "He never took the position that he was in charge. He was definitely not a part of the class. And that's weird because he was teaching it." Jim Toner (4th-cheMistry) said he Programs can improve fluency in English By IRIS NAAR Daily Collegian Staff Writer Foreign students who have trouble communicating in English have several resources available to help them improve fluency Gale Duque, coordinator of the English language programs in the speech communications department, said the department offers Speech Communication 115 G, a course designed for graduate students who have not quite met proficiency requirements or who want to improve their abilities. Students in the course already have been admitted to the University. The course focuses on different areas, Duque said, such as speaking and listening, grammar and basic writing, and advanced reading and writing. Each sec tion every term has a different focus, she said. The department does not offer a specific course designed for graduate teaching assistants, Duque said. The department has not received funding for such a program, and no procedure has been set up, she said. Duque said an Intensive English Communication program is also offered. The program is intended primarily for people who have not been admitted to the he will not release the American captives until after Nov. 4 election day in the United States so as not to benefit either presidential candidate. U.S. officials refused to describe the prolonged debate as a setback for the United States. The debate started Sunday. "We are not, in any way, going to characterize the parliamentary debate," an official insisted. "We said we hoped they , would address the ques tion of the hostages at the earliest possible time And they are doing that " A Carter administration official, who asked not to be named, said, "We have received no hard evidence of an imminent breakthrough and there is no direct contact with Tehran." One proposal known to be under consideration by the Majlis is to release most of the Americans and hold the others, possibly for trials on es pionage charges. State Department spokesman John H. Trattner repeated Washington's warn- also had some problems with the same Chemistry 15 instructor. "It was terrible because you couldn't understand him," Toner said. "He spoke too fast and too low. "He didn't make a point as to what he wanted," Toner said. "He didn't unders tand Penn State lifestyles, let alone American lifestyles. He wasn't on a one to-one basis with the students." Toner said he had an Indian instructor for his Chemistry 14 class. The instruc tor's accent was also hard to unders tand, he said, but this instructor related better to the students, and was easier to understand. Dave Colestock (4th-science) also had a foreign graduate student for his Chemistry 14 class. "He knew what he was talking about but he had trouble communicating it," Colestock said. In addition, the instructor had to write everything on the board, he said. Sharyn Gardill (4th-biochemistry) said her Chemistry 14 instructor, who University, but also has some students who have been admitted in it. She said the program offers full-time study and is held for 25 hours a week. A Test of English as a Foreign Language test ex amines reading comprehension and grammar, but does not measure verbal and comprehension skills, said Vickie Ziegler, chairman of the subcommittee on graduate student teaching assistants of the University Faculty Senate's Committee on Undergraduate Instruction. "It doesn't measure the skills needed for teaching," she said. Ziegler said there is no way to quantify how much of a problem foreign graduate students may have in the classroom when speaking or understanding English. All departments have the potential for problems with foreign graduate teaching assistants, she said, but some colleges, such as Liberal Arts, Science and Business Administration, use more graduate students. And "because they use more, the potential for pro blems exist," she said. ing that putting any of the hostages on trial "would have grave consequences for Iran." He also said, "We have had no communica tions from Iran," but added, "the general feeling in Tehran is that the decision will not have a rela tionship to the American presidential election" Nov. 4. A number of reports late last week suggested the hostages would soon be released. According to one television account, the Americans were to be set free in two groups, on Sunday and yesterday. "They (the Americans) are now bragging about the imminent release of the hostages," Iran's official Tehran Radio said in a broadcast yesterday. "This is a rumor with which they want to gratify themselves." Trattner, in his Washington briefing, spoke of "some wild and irresponsible reporting," adding that "we have long cautioned everyone against was foreign, did not give good explana tions. She said her instructor also took points off her written labs because she was making some of her letters "wrong." Dixon said the chemistry department will be distributing student evaluations of all teaching assistants. He said any problems with foreign graduate students would therefore show up on the evaluations. Dixon said several solutions to the foreign graduate assistant problem are available. The students can be given in tensive training in spoken English, but that is an expensive process, he said. The department could refuse to accept some students, he said. However, this would deny the department access to some of the brightest students, and would limit cultural interchange. "Some of the very brightest and most productive teaching assistants are foreign graduate students," Dixon said. Dixon said the department chose to restrict the acceptance of teaching 15' Tuesday Oct. 28, 1980 Vol. 81, N 0.67 12 pages University Park, Pa. 16802 Published by Students of The Pennsylvania State University undue and unwarranted optimism and we con tinue to be in that position." The 228-member Parliament's decision for a lengthy, closed-door debate was seen as a positive sign that Iran wants to resolve the year long crisis that led to the United States freezing Iranian assets and imposing an economic and military embargo on Iran. But the debate immediately bogged down in charges of U.S. support for Iraq in the five-week old war with Iran, reporters present at the Sun day session said. Tehran Radio said the Majlis also discussed the Persian Gulf war during its debate yesterday. Several Iranian officials, including Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Rajai, have accused the United States of using radar planes stationed in Saudi Arabia to spy on Iranian troop movements on behalf of Iraq. assistants to United States citizens or those students who come from highly English-oriented countries. Bordner said the mathematics depart ment is holding a class this term for all new foreign graduate students, as well as for some more experienced foreign graduate students. Students must prepare a lecture or part of one and pre sent it in class. The students are then criticized on the lecture. The course is required for all new foreign graduate students, she said. Bordner said this fall prospective foreign teaching assistants had to stand and give a 15-minute presentation to a committee from the department to see whether the English competency was adequate. Mary McCammon, a scheduling of ficer in the mathematics department, said some of the difficulty in regard to foreign graduate students lies with the graduate students, but that some lies with the undergraduates they teach. Ziegler said cultural differences may cause pro blems in a classroom situation, but said such problems can also add to a class. Some foreign students may have a lack of information about American classroom situations, and can adapt and adjust only if they have the information, she said. According to the Faculty Senate report, a Center for the Study of English as a Foreign Language has been established as a joint venture of several colleges and offices. The center provides for the expansion of courses for those deficient in English, and seeks to im prove counseling and advising about language pro blems. It will also provide assistance in improving language skills in English. The report said the center will coordinate its efforts with departments that have teaching assistants for whom English is a second language. The center is sup ported by funds from the College of The Liberal Arts, the College of Science, Continuing Education, the Graduate School and the Office of the Provost. It also is supported by the Office of the Vice Presi dent for Undergraduate Studies and the International Student Affairs Office. 1 , :1 I Continued,on Page 10
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