WORKING WITH VANTAGE FACULTY AND STAFF
Current positions within Vantage College are described below. For additional opportunities within UBC, please view the faculty and staff postings on the UBC Careers page.
Graduate Teaching Assistant, English for Academic Purposes
UBC Vantage College invites applications for up to 9-10, full-time Graduate Teaching Assistant positions in the 2021/2022 academic year to assist with academic English courses in Vantage College’s Arts, Science, and Engineering Programs.
UBC Vantage College offers first-year curriculum in a cohort program to academically strong international multilingual students whose English language proficiency does not yet meet the English language requirements for direct admission into UBC degrees. Students take courses in one of the Vantage One programs (Arts, Science, or Engineering) before transferring into second year in their degree program. The primary goals of the Vantage One curriculum are: (1) to encourage students’ cultural, linguistic, and academic engagement in disciplinary communities and (2) to maximize students’ successful transition to Year Two in the Faculties of Arts, Science, or Applied Science. For more information about the Vantage One programs, please see https://vantagecollege.ubc.ca/
The Vantage One programs are hiring up to the equivalent of 9-10, full-time Graduate Teaching Assistants. These programs include specific courses focused on academic English language and literacy development, such as LLED 200 (Introduction to Writing in Academic and Professional Registers), LLED 201 (Critical Reading and Writing in Academic and Professional Registers), and VANT 140 (Content and Language Enrichment Tutorials). These courses are developed and taught in close coordination with the other courses in the program; for example, VANT 140 in the Vantage One Arts program focuses on academic English specific to the Arts courses taught in that program (Political Science/Psychology/Sociology).
The Teaching Assistant positions will involve up to 192 hours in Winter terms 1 and 2 of the 2021-2022 academic year and are subject to final budgetary approval. Each course section is allocated 32 hours of GTA support. Therefore, a full GTAship would involve assisting in multiple course sections.
Duties
The Graduate Teaching Assistant supports the academic English instructors with teaching, assessment and feedback, as well as coordination, with an emphasis on qualitative feedback, tutoring and marking. Duties may include attending regular program/course meetings/classes, holding office hours, providing student feedback where applicable, conducting research to support materials design, attending mandatory training sessions and marking/collaborating in assignment and exam design, as well as potentially designing and facilitating study skills workshops with students (e.g., library skills).
Qualifications
Graduate Teaching Assistants must be registered as full-time graduate students at UBC and must have experience teaching and/or tutoring English language learners for academic purposes. Formal training and teaching in TESOL or Applied Linguistics is an asset. The academic English courses at Vantage College are informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics and genre-based pedagogies; therefore, while prior knowledge in these areas is not required, depending on the assigned duties, applicants may be expected to have an interest in familiarizing themselves with the theoretical and pedagogical approaches used in the courses they support.
In addition, familiarity and prior experience with any or a combination of the following disciplines is also an asset for applicants interested in serving as GTA for the VANT 140 courses:
- Political Science, Psychology, or Sociology (For VANT 140 Arts)
- Chemistry, Physics, Math, Computer Science or Earth and Oceans Sciences (For VANT 140 Science)
- Matter and Energy, Electricity, Magnetism and Waves, Sustainability, Computer Programming or Engineering Design (For VANT 140 Engineering)
Application instructions
The following application materials must be sent (as separate Word or .pdf files, using this file-naming convention: LASTNAME, Firstname_Application Form; LASTNAME, Firstname_CV; etc.) by email with the subject heading “Graduate Teaching Assistant – English for Academic Purposes, Vantage College” to the following address: employment@vantagecollege.ubc.ca. Review of applications will begin on May 1st. Applications will continue to be accepted until the positions have been filled.
All Applicants are required to include the following in their application package:
(1) a completed Vantage College EAP Courses GTA Application Form (Download the EAP Course GTA Application form)
(2) curriculum vitae, including a list of all teaching-related activities,
(3) evidence of teaching effectiveness (e.g. teaching evaluations), if available
For questions about this position, please contact the Director of our Academic English Program, Dr. Sandra Zappa-Hollman: sandra.zappa@ubc.ca
Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Métis, Inuit, or Indigenous person. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.