Native English Speakers and Non-Native English Speakers as Teachers - Literature review Example

Native English Speakers don’t always make the best English teachers As the need of gaining English language proficiency increasingly explodes worldwide, there is also an increase need for more teachers of English as foreign Language teachers. However, the first qualification given for becoming an English teacher is ‘must be a native English speaker’. This locks out the non-native speakers who’ve learnt English as a Second Language (ESL) and have a passion for teaching English. In many countries in Asia, most ESL positions are specified for native speakers with particular from USA, Australia and UK (Claypole, 2010). The question that pops into one’s mind is ‘Do native English speakers make the best English teachers?’ According to Tiwari (2010), students prefer teachers of certain personalities; easy-going, lively and charismatic, introvert, quite and so on. Parker Palmer surveyed several students asking them to describe their ideal teacher. Some of them described a person who lectures throughout; some chose those who lecture a little and facilitates group activities all through while some were in between. According to Andrews (2007), effective teachers are those who have capacity to connect with their students, connect student to each other and connect everybody to the particular subject being studied. There are knowledge, skills, attitudes and experiences that are necessary for a good teacher. According to Stronge (2007), teachers need to be patient explaining when explaining concepts. A teacher should be comfortable in explaining to students, contents and context of a subject as well as how things work. A sense of humour is part of teaching method that teachers should have. Humor is a powerful tool to any lesson which a teacher can integrate into his lessons, stories and explanations to help his students. A sense of humour lightens the atmosphere and reduces barriers especially during heavy periods of learning. This will enable a teacher gain more respect and increase his popularity. A good teacher should also be interested in people. ESL teachers should have a temperament that caters for students of all age ranges; higher education, adults, elementary, secondary education and special education. It is also important for ESL teachers to have a fair mind in order to assess students depending on their performance, and not on their personality, culture or background (Claypole, 2010). According to Braine (1999), common sense is another skill a teacher should have. This enables them to deal with a certain situation quickly and make a decision that is appropriate. This also has to do with fairness and communicate a decision clearly. Good teachers have a wide understanding of the subject they are teaching in terms of depth in conveying a message in the most meaningful ways. They should be able to present and represent information in different perspectives in order to help students understand concepts. Teachers should set high expectations for their students and ensure that those students hold to them. They need to set their own expectations very high, demand their own and students excellence. It is also important for ESL teachers to be oriented with details in the manner that they are professionally organized even in their duties of teaching. Good time management is also a skill that a teacher must have since time is a precious resource that needs to be used wisely. A teacher needs to monitor his time and allocate deadlines and priorities. Teachers should be flexible in their duties. They should be ready to lead or follow depending on the available circumstance. They can shift their positions from being in front to working on the side. They need to know how to work with several peoples like parents, teachers, co-workers and administrators. They need to understand that though there are traditional ways of doing things, there is also a place saved for new approaches, new systems, new ideas and new ways. Instead of putting obstacles in their ways, teachers should always be open minded and willing to open to other peoples’ ideas (Stronge, 2007). Teachers also need to learn to improve on their teaching approaches through teaching, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes and improving on their work. They should be fair critics of themselves. A good ESL teacher should undergo a teacher training program to help them get ready to teach by being introduced to different techniques, methods and experiences. A teacher should be willing to learn from other teachers and from his students because as much as he may know his subject well, learning never stops. When a teacher has empathy he will be able to bond with his students and understand what they feel, in order to communicate at their level. A teacher needs to be compassionate with his students when things aren’t doing great and celebrate with them when everything is going on great. Positive mental attitude is another important aspect that a teacher should have. This is through smiling even when things are tough, seeing a brighter side of things and find positive things in a situation that is negative (Tiwari, 2010). Teachers are windows through which students see their future or their achievement. That is why teachers need to role models to their students. Teachers should also be creative in order to use inspirational and creative teaching methods to motivate their students. They should also have good presentation skills both for kinesthetic, auditory and visual learners. Body language matters a lot and a teacher needs to keep it positive always. Discussion without lecturers in most cases tends to stimulate student’s great feedback (Braine 1999). Some students in a class can be have bad behaviors, negative attitudes and very aggressive. They may have gone through worse experiences in their lives. Staying calm and being in control of the situation is very important in reliving students’ stress. A teacher should be inspirational in through him his students’ lives can be change and their potential, growth, abilities, talents and skills can be realized. Being passionate about what they do is another important element a teachers should have. They should purpose to make a difference in other people’s lives, in this case being their students. According to Claypole (2010), English native speakers are perceived by many people to be ideal teachers in ELT, ESL, or EFL. In some countries, an English course institution attracts many English learners when they have English native speakers as teachers. Many institutions offering English course emphasize in their advertisements the need for native English speakers, implying a special distinct feature they have from any other institution. English course becomes more expensive when taught by native speakers than non-native speakers. The originality of native speakers is what makes them attractive to people. They can be able to provide a judgment that is valid and steady on their own language. They are known to detect wrong expressed grammar in their language. Their better qualification is associated with their English comprehension that is original and inherited. They are in a better position to demonstration fluent language and excellent pronunciation. They are also considered to be proficient in English due to their excellent speaking. A native speaker may know and understand his language in and out, but he may lack all the above discussed qualities that are needed to be a good teacher. Speaking a language does not necessarily mean one knows how it works. It is different learning English as a first language and learning it as a second language. Regardless of native speakers knowing English deeply they may not understand its concepts well enough to be explain it to another person. For example an Arabic speaking teacher in Saudi Arabia can be able to translate to students what words like ‘to have’ ‘to go’ , and so on mean in Arabic. A native English speaker can’t be able to translate that (Al-Omrani & Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2008) There is more to teaching English than just knowing the language. Non-native English speakers having learnt English as a Second Language (ESL) wouldn’t teach students just anything. A good English teacher knows the teaching techniques and classroom observation and practice. He or she should also know how to review English grammar and teach students how to explain the use of certain tenses, when and why (Stronge, 2007). An English teacher should also adapt his or her teaching to certain learning styles of students. A non-native English teacher is in a good position to understand his students as he can easily know where his students might have problems, because of relating English to their first language. An Arabic speaking English teacher for example, can be able to understand how hard it is to learn English as an Arabic speaker. This is because as non-native English speaker, he knows which things will be difficulty to the students and knows how to explain them in the most efficient way, since he was once learning English as a second language (Liurda, 2007). Native English Speaker Teachers (NESTs) and non-NESTs differ in the proficiency of their language and teaching behavior, though they can be equally good teachers in their own way. In an ideal situation, both NESTs and non-NESTS should complete their skills and should benefit from each other’s advantages. However the two types of groups live and work in different environments. In this case NESTs are more disadvantaged because non-NESTS are in a better position to learn the latest theories of education in English and know their own language at the same time, while NESTs living in their own English-speaking countries are not in a position to benefit from a research published in another language like Japanese (Braine, 1999). According to Claypole (2010) there is no automatic relationship between NESTs and effective teaching. In many cases, some teachers of English know better English than others without necessarily being better teachers. There is thus no great reason to say that native speaker can be a better teacher than a non-native. On the contrary effective teaching prerequisites lie with the non-native. Though a native speaker understands the format of various English forms, he needs more than understanding the language to be a good teacher. He needs to know teaching methodologies and teaching techniques to make it successful. Teaching language is a complex thing and the teacher must know how to deal with the needs of students, as well as how to motivate them through providing activities that are interesting. Indisputably, native speakers can do best in pronunciation and other aspects of language auditory. But the element of culture is involved when teaching English to ESL learners, something that is new to native speakers. Language learning becomes effective if it is related to cultural concepts that are familiar to the learner. Since native speakers are incapable of getting exposed to non-native speakers’ cultural settings, they cannot transfer the skills successful the way a non-native speaking teacher would. Moreover, it doesn’t mean if one is fluent in a language, he is competent to impart the same skills to others. A language teacher needs be well-trained and well-prepared ready to teacher, despite his nationality. It is important to have the knowledge of other people in order to teach them English as a Second Language (ESL). One should go back to the students’ first language, learn their culture, civilization, customs, history, beliefs, and traditions; otherwise as a teacher, he will face too many problems. If a teacher has prejudice about the students’ civilization, he may hurt their feelings in the course of teaching them. That is why it is important to study every aspect of a language in order to teach it in the most correct way. A successful ESL teacher therefore must have a combination of experience, knowledge, training, language teaching skills and passion and interest for teaching. My friend’s experience in learning English in the University was by use of different techniques and taught by a non-native speaker. They were provided with topics in class and were asked to work in groups and talk about their opinions. His teacher provided them with a topic a day before the class and asked them to work in groups regarding the topic. The topics were about movies, Saudi Arabia foods, sports, music and so on, which they presented in the next class. It was interesting as it seemed more like a show because it involved dance, sing, poetry, and so on (Claypole, 2007). It would be unfair to say that English native speakers are better English teachers by birth. Putting in mind that I know several English speaker friends who were very poor in spelling. I am sure those kind of people can’t be better English teachers to ESL students. However it would be of a great advantage to them because of the spoken form which would make it easier compared to a non-native speaker. The most important skill an ESL teacher must have is the understanding ability of his students and programs development to meet students’ needs. The fast stage of teaching is having the student knowledge. The second is the delivery process, program delivery or the methodology. How programs are delivered or imparted to students will determined the students desired output, something a non-native speaker does better than a native speaker (Liurda, 2007). More often some native speakers fail to produce proper sounds. Native American speaker for example becomes personal when speaking English, ignoring the rules of English grammar. For example they say ‘Watcha lookin’ at?” instead of ‘What are looking at?” I bet this kind of a native English speaking person cannot be able to teach fluent English to an ESL learner. Communication in English should therefore not be standardized. Instead of learning American or UK culture, non-native English speakers should talk about and build their own culture in English, since the language has become an international language. Personally I had an experience where I was taught English by a native speaker who knew great pronunciation but didn’t know how to teach. I think I knew much detail about grammar that he did. Everyone can thus be a great teacher if he has training, is studying, has motivation, and is observant and dedicated. Personally I preferred a local teacher who is a non-native speaker because I could ask English questions in my mother tongue and my teacher would be able to help easily. This made me feel more comfortable learning English. I also found it costly being taught by a native speaker. Most of them didn’t have teaching skills and still their culture differed strongly from ours, and thus became a barrier. Local or non-native English speakers will always be the best teachers if they have skills and the heart to teach (Braine, 2007). Non-native speakers have a great advantage in the language mastering process. It makes them aware of the needs of learners as they have been learners of the language they teach. Non-native English teacher motivate and inspire their students to learn. Unlike native speakers, they can tell their students “Be determined. I am sure you can do it. If I was able to learn English so you can”. This is something a native speaker cannot do as he didn’t have difficulties learning his own language. A while back my friend who tried learning Thai in Thailand from native speakers couldn’t be able to read, write and speak after several months. However, an Australian taught her the language (Thai) and in just few weeks, he was able to read, learn and write something native Thai speakers couldn’t be able to do. One of the best English teachers in Australia was a foreigner. However he was very effective in explanation of concepts in a way a foreigner learning saw some sense in it, because he had experience of learning English as a Second Language (ESL). A lot of language teaching involves disseminating and imparting of knowledge. Non-NESTs are even better in communicating information about the language they are teaching. Since non-NESTs take time to do a formal study of English, they have better grammar. Though NESTs shine generally in communicative skills, the conveying of formal content and knowledge lies best with non-NESTS. Generally, non-NESTs provide a good learner imitation model, anticipate and prevent language difficulties in a better way, make us of the learners’ mother tongue, are more empathetic to the problems and needs of leaners, supplies students with more information about English language, and teach language learning strategies in a more effective way. Non-NESTs have always been seen as ideal ESL teachers because of the process they’ve gone through in acquiring a second language. They have experience at first hand in learning and using the language. They however have been sensitized by their own personal experience to their students’ cultural and linguistic needs. Non-NESTs who speak the same language as their students are aware of difference between English and the mother tongue, something that gives them ability to anticipate linguistic problems of students (Claypole, 2007). In the previous paragraphs, I have illustrated characteristics of a good teacher, and willingness to learn is part of it. Non-NESTs have in common willingness to learn English language besides their own. Since non-NESTs learned their English after acquiring their native language, they can be able to make good learning models to the learners. It is easier for non-native English teachers to put themselves in the shoes of the situations because they have had a chance to learn the language as a second language. This enables them to understand how difficult it can be to learn a new language. On the other hand, native teachers are less aware of the students’ feelings towards learning the language because they haven’t gone through the second learning process before. Non-native English teachers can therefore predict the potential language problems that may be encountered by students and provide them with appropriate productive treatments. In addition, native English teachers and students can face a big challenge of different cultural norms. Native English teachers take their own culture and patterns to class. A good behavior in non- native English country for instance may be seen in a student who keeps quite in class, while a native English country perceives a quite student as lacking participation in class. Native English teachers may therefore credit quite student negatively (Liurda, 2007). In ending this discussion, native English speaking teachers have been believed to be superior to non-native English teachers especially in teaching oral English. However, this statement is just a myth in profession of teaching English Language. It isn’t always advantageous having native English speakers in the fielding of teaching language. For decades non-native English speakers have proved to be better English teachers than native English teachers. Despite the fact that native English speakers have advantage of oral production and fluency in speaking as well as pronunciation, it doesn’t guarantee their ability of being greater teachers. A good ESL teacher therefore is the one that ensure his students are interested in the learning and that are responsible for making the class atmosphere a positive one for learning. With the least effort provided he should help ESL learners understand the language. An ESL teacher must also be knowledgeable, equipped and trained. He must understand as well as study the education needs of ESL learners. He is responsible for ensuring that learners’ characters are shaped and that their dreams of learning English are realized. An effective ESL teacher is one who understands and communicates on the level of ESL learners, and is without bias. He takes the role of a counselor, friend, and parent to those learners. He needs to easily approachable at any time and one that students can strongly confide in. Non-NNESTs can contribute to English language education field in the most meaningful was as long as they are qualified and trained. This supported by their own experiences as students before, training experience and their experience as teachers. It is true that native English teachers have an advantage of authentic pronunciations and good expressions to students than non-native teachers. However, non-native teachers can have more positive influence on learning journey of students in term of cultural matters and effective areas of those students. Bottom of Form Reference List Andrews, S 2007. Teacher language awareness. Cambridge University Press Al-Omrani, A. H & Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2008. Perceptions and attitudes of Saudi ESL and EFL students toward native and nonnative English-speaking teachers. Indiana University of Pennsylvania Braine, G 1999. Non-native educators in English language teaching. Routledge Claypole, M 2010. Controversies in ELT. BoD-Books on Demand. Liurda, E 2006. Non-Native Language Teachers: Perceptions, Challenges and contributions to the profession, vol 5. Springer. Stronge, J. H 2007. Qualities of effective teachers,2nd Ed. ASCD Tiwari 2010. Teaching English. APH Publishing Read More