Student Attitudes Toward Native and Non‐Native Language Instructors

Abstract

This study investigates students' attitudes toward native and nonnative speaking instructors of Spanish. A quantitative questionnaire was administered to 292 students enrolled in three different levels of undergraduate Spanish courses at a U.S. university. Participants were asked to rate Likert scale items related to native versus nonnative speaking instructors' knowledge and teaching ability, as well as their own potential to learn from the instructors. Results indicate that students perceive native speaking instructors to possess advantages over nonnative speaking instructors with regard to pronunciation and culture, but not with regard to the teaching of grammar or vocabulary. Proficiency level and the native language of a participant's current instructor also influenced opinions.

Second Language Pronunciation Assessment

“…The speech evaluators, however, tended to not be NSs of Spanish, but rather were NSs of English with varying levels of familiarity with Spanish-accented speech. So the pronunciation and accent evaluations in Arizona may have resulted in reducing the number of teachers in the classroom who shared an L1 with the students, something that has been shown to be beneficial in language learning programmes (Hertel & Sunderman, 2009;Marian et al, 2008;Park, 2012). As in Scales et al's (2006) and Isaacs' (2008) research, we found that comprehension was a high priority for students in accepting a speaker as a teacher.…”

“…Accent bias that surfaces during such assessments may lead towards the hiring of NS teachers over NNS teachers , even though the NNS teachers may have better teaching skills (as summarized by Hertel & Sunderman, 2009;Moussu, 2010). Or, as described in the literature, NS teachers may be hired first and foremost over NNS teachers (the so-called native speaker fallacy, as observed by Clark & Paran, 2007; Kahmi-Stein, 2004;Moussu, 2010;Park, 2012) because NSs are believed to be best at teaching, mainly because they are considered to have the language variety learners may want and because they are able to serve as expert cultural ambassadors.…”

“…Additionally, when students share the same L1 as the teacher, NNS teachers may use the shared L1 to facilitate comprehension. Students themselves report better understanding of their teacher when the L1 is shared because the accent is easier to understand (Hertel & Sunderman, 2009;Park, 2012). These studies provide a snapshot of students' general positive attitudes towards their NNS teachers.…”

“…While students overtly indicated that they preferred NS teachers, an implicit association test suggested that students, in fact, valued NNS teachers equally. Hertel and Sunderman (2009) found that, while students reported that they preferred to learn pronunciation from NS teachers, they appreciated NNS teachers' abilities to give grammatical rules and explain vocabulary, and they also benefited from exposure to NNS teachers and their accents, resulting in increased NNS accent comprehension . Additionally, when students share the same L1 as the teacher, NNS teachers may use the shared L1 to facilitate comprehension.…”

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

“…In contrast, according to Hertel and Sunderman's (2009) survey results, native English speaking teachers (NESTs) are more knowledgeable, and their teaching potential is much higher than that of NNESTs, which leads to an increase in the learning potential of students taught by NESTs. In addition, students are comfortable in their classes with NESTs, who are friendly and lenient, making the learning environment relaxing and less threatening (Alseweed, 2012).…”