I watched closely the advertising campaign initiated by some private schools, various English-language institutions and a number of public schools before the start of the new academic year. The advertisements clearly expressed the desire to attract and employ only native English-speaking teachers or those whose mother tongue was English. In discussing this vital issue, I would like to begin by stating some facts and sharing actual incidents. I will then discuss a number of features or advantages that non-native English-speaking teachers bring English to the classroom as a foreign language. I don't understand how everyone, including officials, investors and even parents, could forget the fact that speaking a language as a mother tongue does not qualify anyone to be able to teach it to others effectively. Teaching languages requires skills, competence, training, and thorough knowledge. Thus, it seems foolish to assume that just because someone speaks English he can teach it effectively. Without earning a teaching degree and having sufficient training and experience, native speakers cannot be effective English instructors. Related to this point, it is equally important to bear in mind the difference between language competency as opposed to teaching ability that comes from gaining a teaching experience first-hand. By the same token, there is also a need to differentiate between “the role of informant” often performed well by native English- speaking teachers and “the role of instructor” played distinctively by non-native English teachers in English classrooms. Let me now share some recent incidents that I personally came across. A government school once hired a number of native English-speakers without examining closely their qualifications, assuming that their being native English speakers was sufficient. When the students complained about their poor performances, they did investigate their academic backgrounds and found out that they used to work as dog trainers back in Chicago and have nothing to do with teaching English. Another incident was shared by a group of students in some of the so-called English-language institutions set up on almost every corner of the main cities in the country. The students reported that their teachers were former company employees and some had worked in embassies of Western countries. What's worse was that some — specifically Americans and Britons —take advantage of the scholarships offered to them by Saudi government to study Arabic in local universities and teaching English courses in English-language institutions once they are done with their daily Arabic classes. Having said this, let us take a close look at several attributes of non-native English-speaking teachers, which clearly show that excluding them or not accepting them to teach English as a foreign language is not a wise decision. Two issues, however, need to be first taken into account, that is, their abilities are not inclusive of the major characteristics of non-native English-speaking teachers, but these are very important ones and our discussion here make reference only to well-trained non-native English-speaking teachers as opposed to untrained native English-speaking teachers. One of the most important qualification that non-native English-speaking teachers possess is that they have experienced firsthand of what their students are going through. Thus, non-native English-speaking teachers can fully understand the problems that English learners may confront. Additionally, non-native English-speaking teachers are expected to exploit their successful learning experiences to improve their teaching methods and guide their students to use more effective learning strategies. Another advantage is that non-native English-speaking teachers have a higher degree of patience with learners. They are more tolerant of the mistakes that English learners may make and more appreciative of the slow process of learning the language. This is partly because they may have made similar mistakes while learning English. On the other hand, native English-speaking teachers may find it difficult to understand the students' problems with a sentence structure or memorizing and pronouncing words that are easy to them. Another advantage is drawn from the belief that a non-native English-speaking teacher brings to the classroom not only English as a foreign language but also various cultures instead of the mainstream American or English cultures only. This will enable a student to be more appreciative of other cultures while learning English and understanding the culture of other countries. One peculiar argument is that non-native English-speaking teachers frequently make grammatical mistakes and wrong diction or pronunciation. Consequently, they are not in a position to be strong models in speaking the language perfectly. In contrast, it is said that native English-speaking teachers seldom make such mistakes, thus they are the best models to represent the language and the only ones to be allowed to teach English. However, a close look at this shows that is not a sound argument. Language educators and practitioners should not expect non-native English-speaking teachers to be as proficient as the native English-speaking teachers in grammar, diction and other aspects of the English language. For this reason, the presence of an English teacher who makes occasional mistakes in grammar, sentence structure and pronunciation is an advantage because the learners will see an imperfect model whose abilities are within their grasp. In other words, students will come to a conclusion that if they work hard in studying English, they will become teachers just like their non-native English speaking teachers. One more advantage is that non-native English-speaking teachers are easy for the students to identify with. The students will view their non-native English-speaking teachers as one of them. This will increase their motivation to learn English. Thus, when students feel that learning English is difficult and that they will never become proficient in English, they will find an inspiration in the non-native English speaking teachers that learning English can be accomplished. A final advantage is that non-native English-speaking teachers have better insight into the structure and use of the language than do the native English-speaking teachers. This aspect is important in the process of learning English, and the teacher's grasp of the language will later lead the learners to a well-trained and effective English teachers. Reports from the fields show that non-native English-speaking teachers excel than many native English-speaking teachers because they study and learn the language formally while native English teachers acquire it naturally. Over the course of their learning experience, non-native English-speaking teachers learn the proper use of tenses, articles and two-word verbs, among others. Thus, these five advantages in particular — firsthand experience as well as patience and understanding, multicultural knowledge, a living model, students' ease in identifying similar experiences as their teachers' and better insight into language structure and use - show that non-native English-speaking teachers have their own advantages. But the field is wide open to include both native English-speaking teachers and non-native English-speaking teachers in schools. Efforts should be made to create an environment that will allow more collaboration between both types of teachers. The issue is not whether non-native English- speakers should be allowed to teach English, but rather how we can best utilize the services of non-native teachers in English as a foreign language in the classroom. Finding a mechanism to make the most of both the non-native English-speaking teachers and native English-speaking teachers will lead to more effective English language learning all over the world.
— Dr. Khalid Al-Seghayer is a Saudi academic. He can be reached at [email protected]
