The Effect of Native Speaker Teachers of English on the Attitudes and Achievement of Learners

Abstract

Teachers are considered to be one of the most crucial elements affecting the success of students learning a foreign language in non-English speaking countries. Native speakers of English were recruited as language teachers all over the non-English speaking world only because of their competency in the language for a long time. But later, it was admitted that being adept in a language doesn’t necessarily make anyone a successful language teacher. Skill in teaching is also very important in native speakers of English as language teachers. Attitude and motivation are proved to be the determinants of success in EFL learning. Native speaker teachers may also have an effect on the attitudes of learners as representatives of their culture and society. And they may be more advantageous in doing that because they are also more competent in that culture compared to nonnative speakers. The study investigated the effect of native speaker teachers of English on the attitudes and success of EFL learners in Turkish setting. The results confirm that the learners who are exposed to native speaker teachers of English have more positive attitudes towards target language community and are more successful in English lessons compared to those who are not exposed to any native speaker teachers of English. The results also verify that the attitude of EFL learners towards the target community correlates significantly with their success in language learning.