Decoding the Myths of the Native and Non-Native English Speakers Teachers (NESTs & NNESTs) on Saudi EFL Tertiary Students

Abstract

Many people believe the myth that being taught by a native speaker is the best way to learn a language. This belief has influenced many Saudi schools, language institutes, and universities to include the nativeness factor as part of a language instructor's job requirements. Using an open ended questionnaire, this study aims to investigate the impact of native English speaking teachers (NESTs) and non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs) on EFL university Saudi students. It also explores how the teachers' background and accents influence the students' achievement in terms of the development of their language skills. The participants are students who are in their preparatory year program at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah taught by NEST and NNEST. The findings of the study indicate that teachers' nativeness and backgrounds have no significant effects on the EFL Saudi students' learning processes. However, a few factors have been detected that play roles in supporting EFL learning, which can be summarized as follows: 1) Teachers' competence and experience are what make the teachers qualified, regardless of their nationalities. 2) Teachers sharing the students' L1 play positive roles in the EFL learning process.3) The teacher's accent has an effect on students, which might hinder the learning process in the case of an unfamiliar accent. 4) The teacher's personality is more involved in the classroom communications and interactions than is the teacher's nativeness. Based on the findings of this study, implications are made on the topic of the effect of NEST and NNEST on EFL learning.

Emotion labor and affect in transnational encounters: Insights from Western-trained TESOL professionals in Saudi Arabia

“…This belief, while benefiting native-English-speaking teachers, also creates pressures on their part as well as on other teachers including Saudi teachers and students. This emotion(al) labor tends to be overlooked in the existing literature, which places non-native-English-speaking teachers at the center of inquiry and projects them as those who are on the receiving end of native-speakerism (Alghofaili and Elyas, 2017; Park, 2017; Song and Park, 2019). As we show below, the teacher participants in our study—Westerners, native speakers of English, experienced, and qualified—also undergo their own emotion(al) labor, which is often unacknowledged by those around them and by scholarly work.…”

Native and Non-native English Speaking Teachers’ Teaching Styles and Their Effect on Their EFL Saudi Students’ Achievement and Enjoyment of Learning English at Taif University

“…Such outcomes agree with lots of other outcomes that showed that NESTs were recommended to instruct speaking because of their precise eloquence and accent such as (Al-Omrani, 2008;Arva & Medgyes, 2000;Lee, 2004;Moussu, 2010;Samimy & Brutt-Griffler, 1999;Tang, 1997). Although it is not consistent with many of findings, which affirmed that instructors nativeness and former works have no notable influences on the EFL Saudi learners' acquisition processes (e.g., Alghofaili & Elyas, 2017). Nevertheless, Wardak (2014) obviously shows that NES and NNES instructors are equally competent, and potent to instruct at more advanced levels.…”

“…To realize the instructing method of the instructors can make a discrepancy in how instructors set their courses, how they treat the students, and how well their subjects do in the realizing content (Conti, 1989, p. 88). While the results of Alghofaili & Elyas (2017) showed that instructors' native quality and presuppositions have no notable efficacy on the EFL Saudi learners' acquisition methods. And instead they attributed success in teaching to some other characteristics such as teachers' competence and experience, instructors sharing the learners' L1 play proper roles in the EFL acquisition process, instructors accent and teacher's personality.…”

Native English Speakers Versus Non-Native English Speakers: The Impact of Language Teachers on Efl Learner's English Proficiency

“…As the debate continues in the field of TESOL, this paper considers the matter from the EFL learners' perspective in the Saudi context. The last two decades have seen exponential growth in the number of research studies that aimed to determine the characteristics of an ideal language teacher (Al-Nawrasy, 2013;Alghofaili & Elyas, 2017).…”