A study of the communication skill needs of the foreign teaching associate (TA) in American universities focused on two questions: (1) What does a foreign TA do to communicate information in an American classroom in terms of comunication strategies and devices for cohesion and coherence of discourse? and (2) How does this compare with the way an American TA communicates information and uses these devices? The subjects were a Korean TA and an American TA in astronomy, both Ph.D. candidates at the University of Minnesota. The Korean student had never before been in an English-speaking country, and had not concentrated on learning aural-oral skills in English. Both were teaching an undergraduate astronomy course. A lecture by each TA was audiotaped and notes taken simultaneously on the blackboard use, gestures, and eye contact of the TAs. The tapes were analyzed, and a transcript of the Korean TA's lecture was discussed with him to learn of his intentions in parts of the discourse. Based on the discourse analysis, it is suggested that courses designed to help TAs communicate effectively in the American university classroom focus on practicing flexibility in the linguistic domain and on effective communication strategies. This way, TAs can express the importance of a point, how two ideas relate, or how an equation can be applied to a problem. Transcripts of the two subjects' lectures are appended. (MSE)