Evidence that native speakers of English make better teacher

Time is of the essence on this one: hope to get some help before the site shuts down.

Has anyone ever come across a piece of research or an article that actually says that native speakers of English make more effective English teachers when compared with bilingual teachers who are not native speakers

It is something we often assume to be true but very difficult to back up.

I don’t assume that’s true.

Foreign teachers have the advantage of correct pronunciation/intonation (assuming they speak a relatively standard dialect) and a natural understanding of grammar. They also have insight into cultural and pragmatic issues. Those are advantages.

But there are far more important things that make up good teaching and there are many native teachers who do a better job than than foreigners. There are some local teachers who have excellent pronunciation and have so few mistakes that the advantages of a native English speaker is not that great anyway. Of course, there are other local teachers who belong in an English class themselves.

So, good luck on your search, but I think you’ll come up empty.

Well I should say it’s true, but only with the advanced level teaching … Native speakers know the in and outs of the language and use it different than we, non-native speakers. Teaching kiddies would be possible by non-native with a good accent …

I’m semi fluent in Chinese…especially in explaining grammar. I used to work in a school where I spoke Chinese 90% of the time while teaching English (yeah, I know it sounds weird, but it was a good school). Anyways, we have some new foreigners at my present school (not the 90% Chinese one) and they don’t speak Chinese. And I see them not explaining things well and missing out on over explanation on grammatical points that differ greatly from their Chinese equivalents. Something they can’t know due to their lack of Chinese. So…I also think it’s best to have a good understanding of Chinese or of Chinese grammar to teach English well.

For begginers and grammer, I think the edge goes to the biling. teachers, but for conversation and practical English (idoms and such), I think the native speaker wins hands down.

So does the student want to pass a test, and then forget it all, or does he/she want to actually go to the west and work/study/live. That’s the question.

What does any of the above have to do with teaching? Teaching is a craft that involves presenting information to other humans in ways that facilitates their learning of it. Expertise in the topic is only a small part of being an effective teacher. And being a native speaker is only a tiny part of expertise in the topic…really, being a native speaker has little or nothing to do with being an effective teacher.

Vorkosigan

There is craft and there are tools to do the craft with. A carpenter may know how to join wood beautifully to make a cabinet, but if he doesn’t have any tools, he won’t be able to do it.

My own preference would vary:

  1. Functionally bilingual native-English speaking teacher WITH considerable in-country experience. This to me is the ideal package: full native competency in English (oh, I should add “who has taken frequent home leaves and still uses English regularly with other native speakers” in there somewhere!), very high functional ability to explain things in Chinese AND in a way that Chinese students tend to understand (the long period of time in-country and exposure to a lot of students and having heard native Chinese speaking teachers explain things).

  2. A native Chinese speaking teacher with great English (educated abroad in most but NOT all cases) is also great. The explanations are not only very understandable to the students, but the teacher has had the experience of learning the material him or herself in the past. This teacher also usually comes with insight into what foreigners are “like” and how they think (even if she doesn’t agree.)

  3. A native English speaking teacher with little or no Chinese. Usually only if the person is trained in ESL/EFL – so that explanations, which have to be made in English, will be effective.

  4. A native Chinese teacher with so-so English – mostly only if the teaching materials being used are correct (fat chance!) :laughing:

As others have commented, I believe the importance of native-speaking-ness is greater with advanced levels. I cannot teach advanced level Chinese because I am simply not accurate enough, but I consider myself to be a pretty fair teacher of beginning and intermediate level stuff for the reasons listed in (2) above.

I’m not aware of any research conclusively proving that one or the other is better, and it seems counterintuitive to think there could be, as there are so many different kinds of classes and students that the different types of teachers would be better or worse for one or the other.

Oh, but for “teaching to the test” the native Chinese speaking teacher wins hands down, becuase it’s not about teaching English, it’s about teaching the students to select the correct answers. I made the mistake years back of trying to actually TEACH listening comprehension for TOEFL at a well-known large buxiban near the Taipei Train Station. I couldn’t get through what I was supposed to in the time alloted. Then someone told me “how to do it” the way they wanted it.

But of COURSE a passport from an “English-speaking” country and a bachelor’s degree guarantees that a person is automatically a great teacher. :noway:

[quote=“ironlady”]There is craft and there are tools to do the craft with. A carpenter may know how to join wood beautifully to make a cabinet, but if he doesn’t have any tools, he won’t be able to do it.

My own preference would vary:

  1. Functionally bilingual native-English speaking teacher WITH considerable in-country experience. This to me is the ideal package: full native competency in English (oh, I should add “who has taken frequent home leaves and still uses English regularly with other native speakers” in there somewhere!), very high functional ability to explain things in Chinese AND in a way that Chinese students tend to understand (the long period of time in-country and exposure to a lot of students and having heard native Chinese speaking teachers explain things).

  2. A native Chinese speaking teacher with great English (educated abroad in most but NOT all cases) is also great. The explanations are not only very understandable to the students, but the teacher has had the experience of learning the material him or herself in the past. This teacher also usually comes with insight into what foreigners are “like” and how they think (even if she doesn’t agree.)

  3. A native English speaking teacher with little or no Chinese. Usually only if the person is trained in ESL/EFL – so that explanations, which have to be made in English, will be effective.

  4. A native Chinese teacher with so-so English – mostly only if the teaching materials being used are correct (fat chance!) :laughing:

As others have commented, I believe the importance of native-speaking-ness is greater with advanced levels. I cannot teach advanced level Chinese because I am simply not accurate enough, but I consider myself to be a pretty fair teacher of beginning and intermediate level stuff for the reasons listed in (2) above.

I’m not aware of any research conclusively proving that one or the other is better, and it seems counterintuitive to think there could be, as there are so many different kinds of classes and students that the different types of teachers would be better or worse for one or the other.

Oh, but for “teaching to the test” the native Chinese speaking teacher wins hands down, becuase it’s not about teaching English, it’s about teaching the students to select the correct answers. I made the mistake years back of trying to actually TEACH listening comprehension for TOEFL at a well-known large buxiban near the Taipei Train Station. I couldn’t get through what I was supposed to in the time alloted. Then someone told me “how to do it” the way they wanted it.

But of COURSE a passport from an “English-speaking” country and a bachelor’s degree guarantees that a person is automatically a great teacher. :noway:[/quote]

I’m #1 … have any dream jobs you want to give me? :rainbow:

There is no evidence that native speakers make better teachers. In fact, there is very little research on any aspect of native speaker English teachers (NSET), including student preference, efficacy of instruction, or prevelance of instruction delivered by NSETs. A point that I have often make is that you could read through the entire literature on English education in Asia and not know that NSETs play a major role.

For more information on the research that is available, you might want to have a look at my blog.

Scott Sommers’ Taiwan Weblog.
scottsommers.blogs.com/

[quote=“ScottSommers”]There is no evidence that native speakers make better teachers. In fact, there is very little research on any aspect of native speaker English teachers (NSET), including student preference, efficacy of instruction, or prevelance of instruction delivered by NSETs. A point that I have often make is that you could read through the entire literature on English education in Asia and not know that NSETs play a major role.

For more information on the research that is available, you might want to have a look at my blog.

Scott Sommers’ Taiwan Weblog.
scottsommers.blogs.com/[/quote]

How’s Jean doing? Did you ever find her after she got washed away from that breaking dam?

The OP might be interested in a book called The Non-native Teacher, by Peter Medgyes (Macmillan). Some of what he writes doesn’t sit well with me, but I think it’s good that someone is representing non-native teachers’ views in language teaching literature. It seems to me that there is a large divide in the publishing and reading of ELT materials in the world. Most of it is produced by and for natives and near-natives. Non-native teachers as a whole produce very little ELT literature, and most don’t consume anywhere near as much of it as native speaking teachers.

[quote=“Vorkosigan”]What does any of the above have to do with teaching? Teaching is a craft that involves presenting information to other humans in ways that facilitates their learning of it. Expertise in the topic is only a small part of being an effective teacher. And being a native speaker is only a tiny part of expertise in the topic…really, being a native speaker has little or nothing to do with being an effective teacher.
[/quote]
In principle, I agree with you, but in reality, being a native or extremely strong non-native makes a profound difference in how someone approaches language teaching and develops as a teacher. The fact of the matter is that almost all of the world’s literature in applied linguistics and language teaching is in English. The most important stuff is translated, but it often sits in libraries never checked out. I think there are a few reasons why the translated material just sits there. In mainland China, Hong Kong and I believe Taiwan, most ELT training courses are taught in English and students are expected to do their reading in English. The reading lists usually just include English language materials. Most graduate students in TESOL or applied linguistics that I know just can’t cope with the load and often come away from their courses with a relatively superficial understanding of what they’ve read or discussed. These are people with anywhere from a 7 to a 8.5 on IELTS.

I’ve browsed some of the translated ELT literature that’s available in Chinese translation, and some of it is quite well done. When I’ve suggested to teachers who didn’t understand what the hell they had read in English that they have a look at translated materials, they’ve usually scoffed at the idea. It seems to me that they would prefer to only read in English and just scrape the surface of their field rather than first reading in their L1 to get their bearings before tackling English ELT literature.

In my experience in working with Chinese English language teachers, I’ve observed that the good ones have almost always been either near-natives or extremely sharp people who felt no embarrassment about reading translated literature first before diving into a specialized topic in English. Of course not all the near-natives I’ve taught with were good, but they were more likely to have distanced themselves from the vernacular Confucian beliefs on education that were still deeply etched into the minds of their less proficient Chinese colleagues. I think they were able to do that because they had been more exposed to the culture and education philosophy in English speaking countries at some point and because their better language skills made it easier for them to access ELT literature.

I imagine my views on Chinese English language teachers probably wouldn’t transfer too well to English teachers whose L1 is closer to English. I’ve known some European teachers whose English was not really better than many of my Chinese colleagues, but those Europeans seemed to speak the same language on teaching as native teachers. I think this is probably not only because the linguistic distance from their L1 to English is not as great, but also because the philosophical distance between their culture or educational traditions and those of the English speaking world is not as big.

It’s a matter of technique, training and the personal preferences/styles of student and teacher. I used to use Chinese a bit in teaching, but I don’t really need it anymore. A trained and/or experienced teacher will find ways to get it done as effectively or more effectively in the target language, and there’s a good bit of literature telling us that using the student’s L1 to teach is not especially effective. But of course you’ve got to do what you’ve go to do when the syllabus and materials you’re teaching make it hard to teach without using Chinese.

I agree that it can be helpful, but a teacher doesn’t necessarily have to have Chinese language skills in order to have a good understanding of Chinese or Chinese grammar. There are a good number of books and articles on learner language that help the English language teacher understand the linguistic background of his students. In fact, some of them may even tell you some things about your Chinese speaking students that you had never thought of even though you speak Chinese. I know plenty of non-Chinese speaking teachers who do quite well. I often get preferential treatment because I do speak Chinese, but if I were given a choice between hiring a well trained non-Chinese speaker who has taught learners from a few different backgrounds and a Chinese speaker with just minimal training, I’d choose the guy with more training and varied experience. I don’t want someone who’s thinking on ELT is heavily influenced by vernacular Confucian teaching philosophies.

Yeah, I agree that being a good language teacher does not mean one is a native speaker of that language. However, there is a DEBATE tomorrow on this STUPID TOPIC (which was probably chosen by a local English teacher our for revenge) and our team needs hard evidence for the affirmative. sigh So frustrating…

Well one thing I’ve noticed that supports why Chinese SHOULDN’T teach English…is all the English learning magazines and books. In the last 2 weeks twice I’ve randomly picked up English magazines for Taiwanese people to see horrible grammar and mistakes. I mentioned this to my co-worker and she didn’t believe me at first she said “But this is made for Taiwanese teachers who teach English…” and it was horrible. Go to a book store and find the section for Taiwanese English teachers and just look at the crap they produce to be bought by others of their same proffesion.

I agree with those who say that in theory a non-native speaker can be as good or better than a native speaker as a teacher, but in practice in Taiwan…the vast majority of the local teachers I’ve encountered, while I have respect for them trying to master such a foreign language as English, on the whole just aren’t up to snuff when it comes to mastering English. I said in general…there are some, of course, who speak excellent English. But most don’t.

And some of the English books made in Taiwan are godawful, just horrible. I used to teach for GTE and their in-school textbooks were so riddled with spelling and grammatical errors I literally had to make at least one correction every single page…

[quote=“mod lang”]

And some of the English books made in Taiwan are godawful, just horrible. I used to teach for GTE and their in-school textbooks were so riddled with spelling and grammatical errors I literally had to make at least one correction every single page…[/quote]

Exactly, some HESS books are 6th edition? and they are still “working out the bugs”…they’ve printed the damn book roughly 6 times…and there are still a few errors in it!

Tomorrow? Ouch.

Well, I’d have said your best bet would have been to go to a few English classes where there’s a local teacher teaching and collect anecdotal evidence.

A native speaker is in a much better position to teach conversational English especially if he is aware of the differences between it and written English. I’m talking about reduced syllables, thought groups, assumed subjects and verbs, slang etc. Pretty hard for a second language learner to actually teach these things if they don’t have an accurate grasp of it themselves. Pretty hard for a native speaker to teach it as well come to think of it, but obviously we have a bit of a leg up in the “how the language is used in the real world” department.

Some of my coworkers also teach English grammar 90% in Chinese and the result is the students come to my classes knowing how to speak English but unable to speak English. In other words they understand English theoretically. My grammar students do very well when I teach the grammar in English - even low-beginners. The key is knowing how to teach grammar and because I was trained in multiple language ESL classes, I learned how to do this in English. However, one does not need to be a native speaker in order to teach English only. I think a stronger argument for native speakers might be made on the understanding the nuances of a language.

The big issue between a non-native English teacher and a native speaker who is working as a teacher (with little to no teacher training or viable experience), is the question over competence (knowledge of correct usage) versus performance (application of correct usage). A non-native English speaker with a strong background will probably have a better understanding of why some things just don’t work in English, but may make some higher-leveled errors. A native English speaker with little ELT training will know when something is not right, but may not have the background to be able to tell why it’s not right.

For low level students, and to a degree, intermediate students, in a monolingual classroom, I think knowing the students’ first language is a big bonus. Competence and performance should be at least a few steps higher, but in this kind of situation, a native speaker is probably not needed.

For higher levels, however, I think a native speaker with some ELT-related training is imperative. I had many non-native French professors for my 400-level courses in film, literature, history, and culture appreciation, but almost any professor who taught the language aspect (called “conversation and composition” in my uni) from the 200-level and up, it was only native French speakers. The only exception was my American advisor who spoke with a beautiful Swiss French accent and taught my French phonology course. :smiley:

But, except in rare instances, a native speaker of English with no training at all (nor practices the qualities that facilitate English learning) is not going to make a better teacher than someone who might not have as strong of English skills, but has the training and experience and an ability that is higher than the level of what the students are expected to reach under their tutelage.

And with this I have to disagree. I have seen how they teach how to pass TOEFL and other tests here, and it is a big waste of time. 90% of class is spent listening to English grammar explained in Chinese. I suggested we should explain the grammar in English, which would also improve the students’ listening ability. Not allowed - “they just want to pass the test.”
Add to this the hours and hours they spend in the class and at home, studying.
Give me these students, with this motivation, and I will give them a higher mark on the test than they could get with the method they’re using now.
This is not just an idle boast. It happened to me in Korea. I had several language-exchange students who put up with my methods for a few months because we were friends, and were then stunned when they finally passed that illusive last level, or got a score far higher than they had ever received before. I heard comments like: “But it worked!” “I guess those buxiban classes were just a waste of time.” “You’re the first person who ever spoke to me like a native speaker, and I think that’s why I could understand what they were saying on the listening section.” My favourite: “I guess you were right after all.”

Unfortunately, getting people to pay for my method is more difficult. If you’re paying, you want results right away and are worried when the teacher doesn’t do exactly the same thing all your other teachers did.