“Just the simple fact of having been born and raised in an anglophone environment does not necessarily qualify a person to teach.”

 

*Blog commentary, source cited below

 

 

 

 

 

QUICK RESOURCE SHEET #84

The non-native speaker as English teacher

 

PREVIOUS TOPICS LISTED AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

 

 

 

Though I am asked often enough, I refuse to be drawn into the debate on native vs. non-native speakers as English teachers. It’s a fact of life that the majority of English teachers around the world will, naturally enough, speak English as a second or foreign language. As the following comments on a blog entry (http://dekita.org/weblog/native-teachers-or-non-native-teachers) on the topic reveal, the debate does rage on among students – and teachers as well, yet many are savvy enough to recognize the much wider array of factors affecting a language teacher’s performance.

 

“…what is important is that the teacher is competent and skillful at his/her craft. Whether the teacher is native or not really isn’t the most important issue.”

 

“Because English is now spoken all over the world, there is no ‘one correct form’ of pronunciation for any given word. Therefore it is crucial for good speakers of English to be able to recognize and understand different accents and to be understood when speaking.”

 

“I can understand EFL students preferring native teachers, as they are usually learning English in a non-English environment.”

 

“ESL students often prefer a non-native teacher, as they have gone through the process of learning another language themselves (often not the case of native teachers!) and understand the difficulties of learning a second language and the intricacies of the English language.”

 

“it’s about the accent… do u think we (non native speakers / teachers) have to “imitate” English accent? Maria – my english teacher -, says us NO. But, other teacher, says YES.”

 

“the teacher’s skill is paramount – whatever his or her language background, it is essential to be a good communicator, to stimulate, motivate and to promote independent learning.  …I have often noticed that there is a fundamental difference in the teaching strategies employed by native and non-native teachers. Native English speakers tend to shy away from bilingual materials and are less ready to use the student’s own language in class. On the one hand, this increases the ‘amount’ of English used in the classroom but it also underuses a valuable resource – the students’ first language. ‘NNES teachers, on the other hand, often feel more comfortable than their NES counterparts when explaining abstract concepts and complicated structures in the students’ own language. Similarly, a native English speaker generally has a cultural advantage when discussing matters relating to the country of the target language, whereas the home-based teacher is often more attuned to the cultural sensitivities of the students themselves. In other words, the really important thing is to compare, but not to compete, for native and non-native teachers to cooperate …to learn from each other and – most importantly – to learn from the feedback given by their students. After all, the best teacher is not only a good communicator, but a good listener.”

 

 

 

Thus, while there is widespread agreement that your training and your approach to teaching matter much more than where you were born or what language you spoke as a young child, there is acknowledgment that non-native speakers bring special qualities to the classroom, and may face unique questions about their role in the classroom.

 

What are those qualities, what is the nature of such questions, and what resources exist to examine these issues in a fruitful manner?

 

 

 

http://www.moussu.net/nnest/newsletter.html

 

This is a collection of newsletters produced by TESOL’s NNEST (non-native English speakers in TESOL) Caucus. Though the most recent issue may only be accessible to TESOL members, most of the newsletters are available online to all, along with a collection of valuable resources on this topic. (Click on the Resources tab at the bottom of the page, then click on Packet, then click on A Reference List.) It’s also worth reading about the background of the caucus (click on History) to gain a larger perspective on this theme.

 

 

 

 

http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/0209maum.html

 

 

“Phillipson (1996) considers NNESTs to be potentially the ideal ESL teachers because they have gone through the process of acquiring English as an additional language. They have first-hand experience in learning and using a second language, and their personal experience has sensitized them to the linguistic and cultural needs of their students. Many NNESTs, especially those who have the same first language as their students, have developed a keen awareness of the differences between English and their students’ mother tongue. This sensitivity gives them the ability to anticipate their students’ linguistic problems.”

 

 

 

http://iteslj.org/Articles/Yamaguchi-Language.html

 

 

“As English has spread all over the world, there are many varieties of English in the world. They are often categorized in two groups, ‘the center’ and ‘the periphery’. The center refers to native varieties of English, such as what Holliday (1994) calls BANA (Britain, Australia and North America). The periphery seems to be more complicated, because it does not always refer to non-native varieties. If we consider 'native' to mean people whose first language is English, many people in countries of Asia and Africa may be recognized as native-speakers (Prodromou, 1997).”

 

 

 

 

http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i31/31a01001.htm

 

This article describes how this sometimes controversial issue is being played out on a number of US college campuses. The details of one study on how our perceptions of a speaker’s language skills may influence our ability to understand the speaker, regardless of the speaker’s fluency, are illuminating, and point to important work ahead in breaking down unfounded stereotypes.

 

 

 

 

http://www.davekees.com/content/view/27/26/

 

 

“I would like to consider briefly the complexity and intricacy of the role of somebody who is a non-native teacher of English. My interest in this topic stems not only from the fact that I belong to this group but also from a desire to join in a discussion that would put the assumptions underlying language teacher education projects in some perspective. As a human being and as a teacher of English, a non-native teacher is caught up in a paradox - or a number of them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previous editions of the QUICK RESOURCE SHEET

#1 – Creating quizzes (and more) online                                                         

#2 – Vocabulary builders

#3 – Online discussion groups for English teachers                                    

#4 – Grammar headaches – and how to cure them

#5 – Resources for new teachers                                                     

#6 – International Education Week

#7 – Mentoring programs                                                                    

#8 – Education publications online

#9 – Applied Linguistics                                                                   

#10 – English for Young Learners

#11 – World AIDS Day                                                                      

#12 – Online writing guides

#13 – E-mail exchanges                                                                      

#14 – Free online English courses

#15 – Effective e-mail communication                                             

#16 – Libraries online

#17 – American Studies                                                                     

#18 – Teaching methodologies

#19 – Internet tutorials                                                                       

#20 – Using the newspaper – Part I

#21 – Making books                                                                           

#22 - Using the newspaper – Part II

#23 – Human rights in language teaching

#24 – Blogging

#25 – Poetry and language teaching

#26 – The communicative approach

#27 -  Idioms

#28 – Earth Day

#29 – Alternative assessment

#30 – Peer assessment

#31 – Self-assessment

#32 – Portfolio assessment – Part I

#33 -  Portfolio assessment - Part II (Online Portfolios)

#34 – Intercultural communication

#35 – Teaching Adults

#36 – Learning disorders / Special needs

#37 – Using computers in reading instruction

#38 – Use of authentic materials

#39 – English for Medical Purposes

#40 – Sources for authentic materials

#41 – Education and technology

#42 – Academic writing

#43 – Teaching and stress

#44 – Back to school

#45 – Motivating students

#46 – Action research

#47 – Internet terminology

#48 – Fluency

#49 – Curriculum design

#50 – Pragmatics

#51 - Podcasting for English teachers

#52 – Critical reading

#53 – Learner autonomy

#54 – Scaffolding

#55 – Holidays

#56 – English for Academic Purposes

#57 – Mixed-level classes

#58 – The brain and language learning

#59 – Book clubs/Readers’ groups

#60 – Teachers and technology

#61 – Using video in the language classroom

#62 – Internet-based classroom projects

#63 – Observing student teachers

#64 – Digital literacy

#65 – Group work

#66 – Giving feedback on student writing

#67 – Vlogging

#68 – Educational leadership

#69 – The first five minutes: How to get a class warmed up

#70 – Managing test anxiety

#71 – Developing listening comprehension

#72 – Discourse analysis

#73 – English for Tourism

#74 – Storytelling

#75 – Virtual Learning Environments

#76 – Sociolinguistics

#77 – Corpus Linguistics

#78 – Teaching teenagers

#79 – Lexical Approach

#80 – Humanism in language teaching

#81 – Collaborative teaching

#82 – Distance learning

#83 – Open Education