Confused expressions are fixed on students’ faces as Kristin Anderson, a junior clinical lab sciences major, looks around her biology lab class – but no one says anything.

Anderson is taking BIOS 210. A teacher’s assistant of Asian descent is leading the classroom discussion. His accent, Anderson said, has an effect on her ability to understand the correct procedures of the lab exercises.

“Half the time, in lab, I can’t understand what I’m doing because I can’t understand him,” Anderson said.

Anderson is not alone.

Each fall, as students become accustomed to their professors, they express concerns about international faculty and about having difficulty understanding their spoken English, NIU Ombudsman Tim Griffin said.

For Anderson, the problem is attributed to a few factors.

He talks really fast, she said, and he doesn’t leave notes on the overhead long enough. This contributes to the difficulty students have understanding the subject.

When Anderson consulted the lab manual for help, she discovered it doesn’t explain things in enough detail. “So I can’t really rely on that,” she said.

Anderson works with partners or groups most of the time, so they rely on each other to figure out what the professor has asked them to do, she said. Like many in her class, Anderson needs BIOS 210 for her major, and she tries to overcome the difficulty a foreign accent can bring to a class.

Although concerns about professors’ foreign accents exist among students at NIU, many say they can overcome the obstacle in just a couple of weeks.

The complaints don’t come from one single department, Griffin said.

Departments that have a higher number of international professors tend to have more complaints, he said.

“Complaints exist in a variety of departments every fall,” Griffin said, “but there doesn’t seem to be any one specific department in which the majority of concerns come from.”

Senior English major Peggy McCambridge was taking a level-one chemistry course as part of her general education requirement. Her professor was of Asian descent, she said, and she had a hard time understanding him.

“I sat in the front row and tried really hard,” she said.

McCambridge said she didn’t contact the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences about her problem. She did, however, ask her professor for help. He tried to explain the chapter to her, she said, but because of the language difference, she still had a hard time understanding him.

“I probably didn’t take the measures I should’ve taken to solve the problem,” McCambridge said.

She said she tried to learn the material in the textbook, but because chemistry is not her best subject, it still was too hard.

Not long later, McCambridge dropped the class.

Many students come from high schools without ever experiencing international instructors, Griffin said.

“It may take a while for students to tune their ears to an accent they are not used to hearing,” he said.

Griffin said it’s extremely rare that a student will drop the class before the first two weeks of class. This is because, after a couple of weeks, students come to him and say that it just took some adjusting and that the problem no longer exists.

At first, it can impact a student’s ability to learn from lectures, he said. But textbooks, displays, PowerPoint presentations and handouts from the professor will aid in the student’s understanding of the subject. Once the student becomes adjusted to a new professor who speaks differently, things usually get easier.

There is no set place for students to direct their complaints, Griffin said. The department chair where the course is being taught is the best place for students to express their concerns, he said, and not the college of their major.

Christine Sorensen, dean of the College of Education, said there have been no such complaints in her department.

“While I have not had any student complaints,” Sorensen said, “I have heard from one other faculty member that one of our newly hired professors from Korea may be experiencing some difficulties.” However, these difficulties exist more with cultural issues than language issues, Sorensen said.

Many times the problem is that students and instructors may need to work a little harder to communicate, Sorensen said.

“Since our students are preparing to become teachers who will likely work in classrooms where there will be students whose first language is not English, I think learning to communicate across these barriers may be an important lesson in itself.”

Some students learned quickly that an accent is something they must adjust to.

Senior English major Carrie Duppler is going into education to become a teacher. Like Sorensen, Duppler has a positive outlook on professors with accents.

Although Duppler has had three professors with strong accents while at NIU, she has learned that the accent starts to trail off after a while and is much less noticeable, she said.

Last semester Duppler had a class about mid-1800s American literature taught by a professor who was of European descent and had a strong accent, she said. In addition, that same semester, she had a Shakespeare class with a professor who had a British accent.

In all three cases, Duppler didn’t let diversity stand in her way.

She said she suggests sticking with the class even if it seems hard.

“Don’t be afraid to talk to the professor and ask for help,” Duppler said.

On a more positive note, Duppler also said her American literature professor was a very good teacher.

“He was very thorough and had office hours available as much as we needed him to,” she said.

Some students have learned from previous experiences that it’s best not to give up.

Brandon Good, a junior electric engineering major, has had problems understanding some of his professors in the past.

Last semester, two of his teacher’s assistants were of Middle Eastern descent and had thick accents.

He was able to pass one of the classes but wasn’t as fortunate in the other.

Some good did come out of his experiences, however.

This semester Good is taking TECH 277 and once again has a professor with a thick accent, but he said he’s ready to deal with it.

Unlike the other professors Good has had, this one speaks very quietly and is hard to hear, he said. Sometimes it seems like he’s mumbling and stuttering. So not only does Good have to adjust to an accent, he also has to deal with other issues.

The textbook and note-taking helps out a lot, Good said. And the professor’s PowerPoint presentations are sometimes beneficial. Good never talked to his professor about his concerns, though, he said.

“I didn’t even consider dropping the class,” Good said, “because I knew I needed it for my major, so I just decided to deal with it.”

English-speaking students aren’t alone when it comes to communication barriers.

Ignacio Baleztena, a communication and media studies major at NIU, is from Spain. He has lived here for about a month.

“The first week of classes was horrible at first,” he said, when asked if he had any problems understanding his professors. Since Baleztena learned the British form of English, he said he really has to concentrate to understand his teachers.

The way professors pronounce words, not so much their accent, is Baleztena’s biggest problem, he said.

If the professor puts notes on the board, that helps a lot, he said. He actually has a harder time understanding his classmates than his professors, Baleztena said.