Native English-speaking Teachers Research Articles

The Halo surrounding native English speaker teachers in Indonesia

The Native Speaker Fallacy, a commonly held belief that Native English Speaker Teachers (NESTs) are inherently better than Non-NESTs, has long been questioned by ELT researchers. However, this belief still stands strong in the general public. This research looks to understand how much a teacher’s nativeness affects a student’s attitude towards them, as well as the underlying reasons for their attitudes. Sixty seven respondents in two groups were asked to watch an animated teaching video, after which they completed a questionnaire that used Likert-scales to assess comprehensibility, clarity of explanation, engagement, and preference. The videos for both groups were identical apart from the narrator; one spoke in British English, while the other, Indian English. In addition, they were also visually identified as Caucasian and Asian, respectively. The video was controlled for speed of delivery. The quantitative data were then triangulated using qualitative data collected through open questions in the questionnaire as well as from a semi-structured interview conducted with 10 respondents. The data show that there is a significant implicit preference for NEST teachers in the video, as well as in respondent’s actual classes. However, when asked explicitly, respondents didn’t rank nativeness as a very important quality in English teachers. This discrepancy between implicit and explicit attitudes might be due to a subconscious cognitive bias, namely the Halo Effect, in which humans tend to make unjustified presumptions about a person based on known but irrelevant information.

Critical review and creative suggestions for the native English speaking teacher policy in South Korea

In order to invigorate communicative language teaching, until recently the South Korean government actively promoted the hiring of native English speaking teachers (NESTs) at state schools. However, mainly due to constrained budgets, many local offices of education have now started to rapidly cut the number of NESTs. This paper takes a critical approach to examine possible impacts of the recent variation in NEST policy on the disparity in learning opportunities between financially privileged and underprivileged students. We begin with a brief review of the history of NEST employment in South Korean state schools. Then, we delve into whether there are pedagogical advantages in team teaching over sole Korean English Teacher teaching. Later, the current policy's driving forces, potential beneficiaries and victims, and outcome of the policy will be discussed. On the basis of the analysis of the recent trend in NEST policy, suggestions for future policy reforms are provided.

Teacher deployment of ‘oh’ in known-answer question sequences

This conversation analytic study describes some specific interactional contexts in which native English-speaking teachers produce ‘oh’ in known-answer question sequences in English language classes. The data for this study come from 10 video-recorded Japanese primary school English language class sessions. The analysis identified three specific interactional contexts in which teachers deploy the particle in receipting students’ answers to known-answer questions: (a) when they reinforce positive assessments, (b) when they act out dialogues with students and (c) when they respond to students’ ‘unexpected’ answers to their questions. Through the exploration of the teachers’ deployment of ‘oh’ in third positions, this study uncovers teachers’ on-line attention to both local interactional contexts and overall pedagogical objectives. In addition, this study discusses how teachers’ deliberate or incidental deployment of ‘oh’ in third positions potentially enhances student opportunities for learning.

Native English-speaking Teachers and Korean English Teachers: A Qualitative Analysis of Korean University Students’ Beliefs

Native English-speaking Teachers and Korean English Teachers: A Qualitative Analysis of Korean University Students’ Beliefs

Criticality for global citizenship in Korean English immersion camps

Given a heavy social, ideological pressure for parents to pursue better English education for their children in the globalized world, short-term English immersion camp programs have emerged as an educational option in South Korea, promoted as environments for intercultural communication between native English-speaking teachers and local Korean students. Examining teacher recruitment materials and promotional materials of 52 English camps, this paper explores how intercultural communicative competence and global citizenship relate to and interact with each other and how these concepts are implicated in Korean English immersion education. The paper further examines what these English camps promise and deliver in terms of preparing English learners for global citizenship via English education. Viewing the cultivation of criticality at the heart of the development of intercultural communicative competence and the shaping of global citizens, the paper argues the need to revisit the concept of criticality in language teaching and learning, familiarize teachers, and students with the practice of criticality, and as a result, raise their critical awareness of the world. Thus, criticality with its emphasis on overcoming stereotypes, relating to and understanding otherness, and gaining a deeper understanding of one's own cultural values could better prepare our learners for the globalized era.

Culturally Responsive Teaching and Bilingual Students’ Literacy Skills in the Middle East

The Middle East is a region where educational programs are shifting from single language instruction to dual languages instructions. While working in many schools in the region, I witnessed many children at the elementary level who spoke fluent English, but when it comes to reading they are not equipped with the proper literacy skills to write or read a complete sentence correctly. Western studies (Gay, 2010; McIntyre & Hulan, 2013; Palmer & Martinez, 2013; Rueda & Stillman, 2012; Sheryl & Suleiman, 1993) offer many solutions to this problem, mostly emphasizing on equipping teachers with cultural awareness skills to help diverse students build and develop their literacy skills in their second language, that is in this case, English. Most of Arab countries, specifically in the Arabian Gulf area, recruit native English-speaking teachers to teach English. However the question raised is how much these teachers are aware of the culture of the Arab students? This question initiates school administrators and stakeholders consider hiring foreign teachers that possess an awareness of the culture of their students. This is the main purpose of this paper is to present what the literature indicates regarding teachers with culture awareness skills. It investigates the characteristics of teachers that are culturally responsive and how these characteristics have a positive impact on developing English literacy skills in Arab students. It is a platform for new researches in the Middle East regarding the students’ acquisition of well-developed English literacy skills.

Feedback in L2 Writing: Voices from Native and Non-Native English Speaking Teachers

The number of studies comparing the practices of different teacher groups in providing written corrective feedback (WCF) in second language writing has increased recently (Porte, 1999; Shi, 2001; Hyland and Anan, 2006). Similarly, this study also investigates how two native and three non-native teachers of English provide WCF on their students’ writings at an English preparatory school in a state university in Turkey. The study is significant in the sense that by presenting current WCF beliefs and practices espoused by different groups of teachers in a context which has not been investigated previously, it can considerably augment the research on teachers’ WCF practices. Teachers’ written feedbacks, think aloud protocols, semi-structured interviews were used to identify issues that arise while providing feedback. The results of the data analysis revealed that there were agreements as well as discrepancies in the areas such as (a) types of feedback, (b) teachers’ opinions on the value/effect of the feedback, (c) focus of WCF and the number of feedback, (d) style of feedback giving process, (e) overall grades and (f) reasons for these overall grades

Native English Speaking Teachers' Use of Metaphor to Describe English Education in Korea

Native English Speaking Teachers' Use of Metaphor to Describe English Education in Korea

It’s Not Who You Are! It’s How You Teach! Critical Competencies Associated with Effective Teaching

Recently a dichotomy has developed in the field of TESOL between native English speaker teachers (NESTs) and non-native English speaker teachers (NNESTs) with some in each camp promoting one over the other, but this only separates rather than unifies our profession. In this article I suggest that it is not in anybody’s interests to continue with this dichotomy if we are to be recognized as a profession within the wider academic community and that we should be debating critical competencies related to effective teaching instead, regardless of if one is a NEST or NNEST. In this paper, I point out that it is not who you are in terms of your ethnicity, culture or race as a TESOL teacher, but what you know in terms of your effectiveness as a teacher regardless of your background.

Native Speakers as Teachers in Turkey: Non - native Pre - service English Teachers’ Reactions to a Nation - wide Project

Although English is now a recognized international language and the concept of native speaker is becoming more doubtful every day, the empowerment of the native speakers of English as language teaching professionals is still continuing (McKay, 2002), especially in Asian countries like China and Japan. One of the latest examples showing the empowerment of the native English speakers comes from Turkey planning to embark on a project to hire 40.000 native English - speaking teachers (NESTs) to collaborate with the local non - native English teachers (NNESTs) in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes in Turkey. This study tries to reveal the preliminary reactions of pre - service NNESTs about this project through data obtained from open - ended surveys. The content analysis of the data showed that even before the project was initiated, most of the participants objected to it. Although some of the participants favored the project as they believed that the NESTs might be more helpful for students to improve speaking skills and to increase their cultural awareness, the majority of the participants held negative attitudes towards the project mainly because of employment and pedagogical concerns.

An Inquiry into the NEST Program in Relation to English Teaching and Learning in Taiwanese Primary Schools

This study aims to explore the Native English-Speaking Teacher (NEST) Program in relation to teachers’ instruction and students’ learning of English in primary schools in Taiwan. Inviting native English-speakers to teach English in the school system is not an unusual practice in the Asia-Pacific region. As the practice of including NESTs in the school system has become prevalent in Taiwan, alongside other Asian countries, its significance cannot be overlooked. It is worthwhile to look into the impact of NEST programs on local English teachers and students in context. Through interviewing, class observation and questionnaire, this study finds that the NEST Program in Taiwan did not have a considerable impact on teachers’ instruction, whereas its effect on teachers’ professional development was mainly concerning English language proficiency. As for students’ learning, the NESTs in the Program served as a language model in the classroom and were able to arouse students’ motivation at the beginning of the school year. Nevertheless, the teachers and the students had unfavorable perceptions of the NESTs due to their unexpected leave without notice. In light of the research findings, the author makes suggestions on the NEST Program.

Difficulties with team teaching in Hong Kong kindergartens

This article draws on qualitative classroom observation and interview data from a case study of one native-English speaker teacher (NEST) teaching in a Hong Kong kindergarten. Features of the NEST’s teaching are identified, namely their professional limitations, their part-time involvement in teaching, and their limited collaboration with the local English teacher (LET) whose L1 is not English. These features are analysed to explore the feasibility of team teaching, which has been suggested as a beneficial form of collaboration between NESTs and LETs. The results show that, in this case study, there are more obstacles to, than opportunities for, successful team teaching (enabling features at the pedagogical, logistical, and interpersonal levels were absent). The results also highlight the challenges of effectively deploying NESTs in an EFL kindergarten. Implications relevant to practitioners in the EFL classroom and policymakers in similar Asian contexts are discussed.

Text Appropriation as Foreclosure From Native English-Speaking Teachers in EFL Writing

The issue of text appropriation is rarely explored in EFL classrooms where the teachers are native speakers of English. In this study we highlight how...

A Qualitative Case Study of Native English-Speaking Teachers in Korea

A Qualitative Case Study of Native English-Speaking Teachers in Korea

The Impact of the Webcam on an Online L2 Interaction

Abstract:It is intuitively felt that visual cues should enhance online communication, and this experimental study aims to test this prediction by exploring the value provided by a webcam in an online L2 pedagogical teacher-to-learner interaction. A total of 40 French undergraduate students with a B2 level in English were asked to describe in English four previously unseen photographs to a native English-speaking teacher of EFL via Skype, a free web-based videoconferencing tool, during a 10-minute interaction. Twenty students were assigned to the videoconferencing condition and 20 to the audioconferencing condition. All 40 interactions were recorded using dynamic screen capture software and were analyzed with ELAN, a multimodal data annotation tool. Participants’ perceptions of the online interaction are first compared with regard to the issues of social presence and their understanding and appreciation of the online interaction, using data gathered from a post-task questionnaire. The study then explores whether seeing the interlocutor’s image impacts on the patterns of these synchronous exchanges and on the word search episodes. Results indicated that the impact of the webcam on the online pedagogical interaction was not as critical as had been predicted.

Teacher Candidates' Perceptions of Nonnative-English-Speaking Teacher Educators in a TESOL Program: “Is There a Language Barrier Compensation?”

A great deal of research has examined the status of nonnative-English-speaking (NNES) professionals in TESOL from multiple perspectives, including graduate students (Brutt-Griffler & Samimy, 2001; Liu, 1999; Park, 2012), program administrators (Clark & Paran, 2007; Nemtchinova, 2005), and ESL/EFL learners (Arva & Medgyes, 2000; Butler, 2007; Ma, 2012a). Little research has addressed native-English-speaking (NES) teacher candidates' perspectives on the NNES-NES divide in TESOL. To fill this void, this study examined the perceptions of teacher candidates from mainstream U.S. backgrounds toward NNES teacher educators. Seventy-six students in a TESOL program completed a web-based self-administered questionnaire. The rating data show no statistically significant differences between NNES and NES teacher educators in personal qualities, teaching preparation, and feedback to students, whereas NNES teacher educators scored lower than their NES counterparts in material presentation, interaction with students, and cultural awareness. The narrative data suggest that, although the NNES teacher educators' English variety was viewed as a barrier in classroom communication, the teacher candidates perceived admirably the strategies to compensate for their lack of Standard English competence through preparation and various communication techniques. The NNES teacher educators' bilingual, multicultural experience was viewed as a form of cultural capital for teacher preparation.

Learning Word Meanings from Teachers’ Repeated Story Read-Aloud in EFL Primary Classrooms

This study used a quasi-experimental design to determine the effects of teachers’ story read-aloud on EFL elementary school students’ word learning outcomes. It specifically examined whether the word learning was enhanced by teachers’ repeated story read-aloud and word-meaning explanations and further determined whether the learning outcomes were related to children’s English proficiency. Two native English-speaking teachers read a story to their fourth-grade classes four times. The results showed that increasing frequency of story read-aloud yielded greater word-learning gains across time. The EFL children, on average, learned approximately half of the target words by the third read-aloud. While both high- and low-proficiency groups showed significant vocabulary gains with the frequency of teachers’ read-aloud, the high-proficiency children consistently outperformed their low-proficiency peers, especially on the L1 meaning-matching vocabulary test. The overall findings were quite encouraging and showed empirical evidence that teachers’ repeated story read-aloud can be an effective way to facilitate elementary school children’s word learning in a context where English is a foreign language.

Native English Speaking Teachers' (NESTs') Teaching Practices in English Reading Classes for University Students

This paper investigated what types of classroom practices were being used in reading classes with native English speaking teachers. With the issues of NESTs' quality of teaching and lack of experience teaching reading over conversational English, understanding what went on in the actual classroom was urgently needed. Seven NESTs' classrooms were observed for teaching practices and were analyzed for their productivity. Findings covered: 1) meaning-oriented discussion; 2) accuracy over fluency; 3) no comprehension check as failed literacy pedagogical content knowledge; 4) activities without clear linguistic goals. It was found that while NESTs provided rich meaning-oriented discussion, they lacked their monitoring of students' comprehension and did not design class activities with strong linguistic goals. They tended to concentrate on accuracy over fluent reading. Based on these findings, the educational implications for NEST training and model classroom practices were suggested. (Woosong University)

Standardisation of Reduced Forms in English in an Academic Community of Practice

The process of standardising reduced forms in English, such as clippings and informal forms, used in academic chat discourse is the focus of this article. Textchat data from an introductory MA linguistics course run by a university in Sweden involving non-native English-speaking students and their native English-speaking teachers is analysed to identify if any forms are standardised. Topic-specific forms are seen to be standardised as much as are high frequency forms, although few have been standardised. It is the students above all who lead the process, and the teachers do not have much influence even if they use a different reduction.

Recognising English accents in the community: Omani students' accent preferences and perceptions of nativeness

Previous research has revealed that although EFL students may claim to prefer British/US accents they often have difficulty identifying them, especially when such accents may differ from ‘standard’ accents presented in ELT materials. In the Gulf, English is widely used as a lingua franca or as a second language by the large expatriate workforce. Particular accents in English characteristic for L1 speakers of Arabic or South Asian languages are commonly heard in the education and service sectors. This study investigates whether Omani university students are able to distinguish between native English speaker (NES) and non-native English speaker NNES EFL teachers' accents commonly heard in their educational context and their evaluations of these accents as pedagogical models. Specifically, the study seeks to ascertain whether a relationship exists between students' assumptions regarding the NES status of an EFL teacher and their evaluations of the teacher's accent as a suitable model for pronunciation. Results show that, in most cases, a moderate to strong correlation exists between these two variables, particularly among students who claim that having a NES teacher is desirable for the purpose of improving pronunciation.