HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY

FINAL ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC 4: Do you prefer being taught by a native teacher or non-native teacher? In

your opinion, who is better at teaching and why ?

Student’s name: Nguyễn Phương Thảo

Class: TA24.03

Student code: 18109287

Hanoi, 2022
Topic 4: Do you prefer being taught by a native teacher or a non- native teacher? In
your opinion, who is better at teaching and why?

1. Introduction
Nowadays, people across the world, recognize the significance of English and research it
for numerous purposes, including to serve their future careers, to study overseas, to make
friends from different international locations and to do business internationally. Since most
English learners are now living in the places where English is learned as a second or foreign
language. Most of the teachers come from and are trained in those circle, and many of them
have had the opportunity to have English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) training
or have pursued higher degrees abroad especially in an English-speaking country. Native
English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs) are rarely found teaching in some developing and
underdeveloped countries especially in the poorer, less developed countries due to the lower
salaries and benefits. However, there are numerous NESTs running and taking part with
neighborhood instructors as a part of the authorities applications to enhance the skills of
English there.
Nowadays, private English courses and international schools or colleges have been
established in most developing countries in Asia. However, they are usually too expensive
for the general public because they generally hire NESTs to teach English in their Shools or
Centers. In their advertisements, they clearly mention that they prefer to hire native
speakers to teach English at their schools because they consider that native speakers are the
best teachers to teach English and clearly mention it is NESTs who will teach English in
their courses. From there the non-native speakers are eliminated even if their academic
qualifications are better than those of the native applicants. According to, Phan (2008 pp 24-
26), ‘these applicants are not given a chance to express their ability; it is assumed that
because of their mother tongues influence they will not be able to deliver quality services to
students’. A non-native speaker being denied an opportunity does not only involve the
school administration, some administrations who have allowed non-native teachers to
handle language classes have received negative response from students who prefer to be

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taught by a native speaker.
So my assignment will evaluation of each the benefits and downsides of a Native and non-
Native language teacher.

2. Native teacher Advantages & Disadvantages

A non-native is likely to interfere with it through the pronunciation of words for example;
an Italian can easily be distinguished from an American by their accent. According to
George Braine (1999), native speakers speak more fluently and intuitively correct than their
non-native colleagues. A native teacher provides a conducive learning environment for the
students who look at him or her as someone they are able to effortlessly discover with
which gives them confidence. Vivian Cook (1999) mentions especially the native speaker’s
creativity in language use and knowledge of standard and non-standard forms of English as
a big advantage over non-native English speakers. He or she will be able to handle a
beginner’s class by giving necessary translations to pupils who may not be familiar with
some difficult words.
Despite the preferences of a native teacher above, sometime they may not always be the
best choice for the students due to some reasons. A native teacher takes many things that
students are supposed to be taught for granted. This is because; he or she has mastered the
language so much, that it may not be easy to deliver the best services to the students. One
major problem mentioned by Braine (1999) is that native speakers often are hired as
teachers simply because they are native speakers and not because of their teaching
competences, they may not have teaching skills. Native teachers may rely on their
experience of speaking the language to teach students rather than using their technical skills.
This makes it hard for the students to learn the basic rules of the language that form its
foundation. They often find themselves in situations where they cannot explain why
because there is no word in the native language that expresses what they want to say.

3, Non-native advantages & disadvantages

Despite the discrimination that has existed for long against a non-native teacher, he or she is
a choice that should be given priority. A non-native teacher who has interest in a foreign

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language reveals how much passion he has for it that he decided to pursue it as a career.
First and foremost, non-native English speaking teachers are not limited to teaching English
as a foreign language in their own country. A non-native teacher has a better understanding
of the challenges that learners of a language go through due to similar experience he has
had, Llurda, (2006 pp 22-25). That means, they have undergone the same learning process,
the same problems and the same mistakes as their students experience and thus can also be
the perfect language learner models for their students (Braine, 1999). So they understands
the real areas that learners will face difficulty and help them accordingly. Despite their
challenges in accent, non-native teachers are endowed with basic skills required for learning
and teaching the language that places them in a better position to teach it effectively.
Students who have difficulty in grasping the language can always be inspired and motivated
by their non-native teacher. He will be an example they can look up to and get assurance
that if he made it despite his or her background they can also make it.
However, As well as native speaker teachers, non-native speaker teachers also have their
weaknesses in and problems with English language teaching. Non-NESTs do not have the
fluency, general language proficiency and cultural knowledge as NESTs have (Braine,
1999), Their accent may affect the spoken language of students that may make them to
loose their identity. If they take a students who learn more of a foreign culture than their
own and he or she not be able to translate some English words to the native language for
proper understanding. The students might hold a certain negative attitude towards non-
native teachers. Such students may not be convinced that he or she is qualified to teach
them properly.

4, Conclusion

As indicated by Pasternak and Bailey (2004), the debate between native and non-native
English-speaking teachers is controversial because of the lack of a comprehensive definition
for the term native speaker and accordingly non-native speaker. This study focused on
teachers’ perception of the professional status of native and nonnative teachers. So in my
opinion, both native and non-native teachers have their own strengths and can be good

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teachers in their own terms regardless of what their first language is. The matters is not
being a native or non-native speaker of English, but that being a good teacher is tied to the
ability to help students benefit from the time spent in the class and to facilitate the process
of language learning.

Word count: 1,123 words

References

1. Phan, Le Ha: Teaching English as an International Language (2008)

2. George Braine: Non-native Educators in English Language Teaching (1999)
3. Vivian Cook: Going Beyond the Native Speaker in Language Teaching (1999)
4. Enric Llurda: Looking at the Perceptions, Challenges, and Contributions... or the
Importance of Being a Non-Native Teacher (2006)
5. Mindy Pasternak and Kathleen M. Bailey: Preparing Nonnative and Native English-
speaking Teachers: Issues of Professionalism and Proficiency (2004)