Delving into International Students’ Attitudes to NESTs and NNESTs

Sureepong Phothongsunan

doi:10.17576/3l-2017-2304-02

Abstract

This study examined the attitudes of international students at university level towards native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs) in a Thai context. It also explored how the attitudes held towards these two groups of teachers shaped the participants’ learning practices and motivation to learn English. Two research instruments; the open-ended questionnaire and the semi-structured interview were employed for this study. The questionnaire administered with 31 participants was the primary data collection tool. The subsequent interview conducted with 14 of the participants served as a supplementary data. The findings indicated significantly differing attitudes towards native English-speaking teachers and non-native English speaking teachers in many areas. These domains comprised the teaching methods and styles; the understanding of students’ problems; grading and marking; language proficiency; personality, classroom behaviour and discipline; and the ability to communicate and interact with learners. Some differences were also reported in the way they assigned work and arranged learning activities and their attitudes towards students. Most participants given the choice had a strong favour to study with native English-speaking teachers. There appeared to be a strong positive rapport between studying with native English speaking teachers and the participants’ learning behaviours and eagerness to study English. Implications are made regarding teacher training, particularly for non-native English teachers and language teachers, be it native or non-native, having EFL teaching experience. Keywords: Attitudes; Native English Speaking Teachers; Non-Native English Speaking Teachers ; Learning Behaviours; Motivation

Highlights

Studies of students’ attitudes towards second language acquisition have received considerable attention over the past few decades. Gardner and Lambert (1972) state that attitudes are usually connected with language achievement irrespective of aptitude and intelligence, justifying that attitudes are a stable feature that influences and determines one’s progress in acquiring a foreign language
To address the first research question, five key categories were created. These encompass who native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) are; perceived differences between NESTs and non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs); teachers’ experience; teachers’ qualifications; and option to study with either NESTs or NNESTs
Several participants added that NNESTs, unlike NESTs, placed particular emphasis on grammar and writing and on in-depth understanding in the area being taught rather than oral and conversational skill development

Summary

Introduction

Studies of students’ attitudes towards second language acquisition have received considerable attention over the past few decades. Gardner and Lambert (1972) state that attitudes are usually connected with language achievement irrespective of aptitude and intelligence, justifying that attitudes are a stable feature that influences and determines one’s progress in acquiring a foreign language. 255) state that an open-ended response ‘puts the responsibility for and ownership of the data much more firmly into respondents’ hands It is an open-ended questionnaire that ‘can catch the authenticity, richness, depth of response, honesty and candour, which are the hallmarks of qualitative data’ (ibid.). FitzGerald (1996) mentions one of the great advantages of the open-ended question—that is, it can discover uncommon but intelligent opinions of which the researcher would otherwise have remained unaware Considering these strengths, the use of an open-ended questionnaire was taken into account. Open-ended items in the questionnaire were used with the hope of gaining an in-depth insight into the students’ attitudes as far as possible

Methods

Results

Conclusion