Native vs Non-native English Teachers

Should all English teachers be ______ speakers?

Is the native speaker relevant to ELT classroom?

Should beginner students have Japanese English ______?

For students new to English, is it more beneficial for them to have a ______ or non-native English teacher?

A native speaker can give us a model of good pronunciation and ______.

All student responses to the question "Who is better - the native or the non-native English teacher?" indicated a preference for the ______ English-speaking instructor of English.

The majority of teachers stated that cultural reasons were not a ______ (only 23% of the responses suggested otherwise).

Teachers spoke of the realistic environment, in the areas of pronunciation, grammar, intonation and ______ that students could immerse themselves in.

Many NESTS commented that with lower-level ability students, being a native speaker was not a ______, but with more-advanced learners, the native speaker teacher became more relevant, especially with regards to ______ and specific language areas such as business and politics.

Figure 3 illustrates findings to the question: If a person is a native speaker, they can teach English. Do you ______?

All student responses indicated a preference for the non-native English-speaking instructor of English.

Cultural reasons were a priority for the majority of teachers.

For lower-level ability students, being a native speaker was not a priority.

The majority of teachers believe that a native speaker's intuition of the language is irrelevant in teaching English.

With more-advanced learners, the native speaker teacher became less relevant, especially with regards to idioms and specific language areas such as business and politics.

The majority of teachers replied 'yes' to the question of whether all English teachers should be native speakers.

Over half of the student respondents agreed that all English teachers should be native speakers.

All student respondents stated that native speakers are necessarily more proficient at grammar and better for learning about a foreign culture.

The majority of students indicated that beginner students should have Japanese English teachers.

The issue of whether beginner students should have Japanese English teachers resulted in opinions being divided equally between both teachers and students.