Critical Comparison between native and non-native English teachers - Research Paper Example

Critical Comparison between native and non-native English teachers Contents Introduction 3 Research Methodology 8 Nature of Research 8 Research Philosophy 8 Research Design - Qualitative Approach 8 Types of Data - Primary and Secondary Data 10 Evaluation Design 12 Results 13 Discussion 14 Introduction Teacher is the friend, philosopher and guide for the students. A teacher has the ability to mould a student’s mind for betterment or in a negative way as because he/she gets attached to the student since their childhood days. The teacher can motivate a student by his/her attitude, power and knowledge. It depends on the teacher that how he/she is going to talk with the students, how he/she is going to make them interested in studies and how he/she is going to teach them for their betterment. The behaviour of a teacher depends on various things, such as their knowledge, cultural background, accent, speaking power, class controlling power, self- controlling power and so on. A teacher who comes from a native land does not know the accent of the students and thus cannot get attuned with the children who are from different social background. Besides, it becomes difficult for the teacher to understand the requirements of the children. And therefore the students lose their interest in that particular teaching method of that teacher. It is very important for a teacher to know the nerves of the students. A teacher can become their support if he/she can win their hearts. A good teacher is not someone who has profound knowledge of a subject but a good teacher is someone who knows how to understand the need of the students and knows how to facilitate them. While proceeding towards the comparison in details it is necessary to first shed some light on the definition of culture as defined by Geert Hofstede. According to the cultural dimensions premises acknowledged by Geert Hofstede, the westernized nations like the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, etc. creates the individualist bunch and is placed at one severe end of the band whilst the Asian nations such as Pakistan, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, etc. forms the collectivist bunch and is placed at the other intense end of the range. The western countries do not have strong cultural values while the Asian nations are strongly bound to their culture. Here culture represents things like family bonding, respect for elders, sticking to morals and ethics etc. Hofstede stated that the general populace of a region experiences a countrywide culture that is known as National Culture. The phrase “National Culture” implies the single culture representing the whole country that helps in the cultural discrimination of the citizens of one country from the citizens of another country. Now as it becomes clear in which ways National culture can affect an individual, it is essential for us to know the significance of an ESL class. ESL Classes are generally framed on the basis of commonly known topics and subjects and emphasizes on all 4 skills of listening, writing, reading and speaking. The application of native dialect in the ESL classes has been a topic of debate for over an extended time period. The utilization of native language is not an issue but the English educators are troubled about its suitable usage and when it is required to use. The native language is frequently regarded as a multifaceted characteristic of the English classroom and there are a lot of predicaments whether to apply native mode of verbal communication in the ESL classroom. The experiences of several teachers suggests that native language can contribute positively towards English learning at the same time some further teachers keep on believing that education on English language must be communicated by the means of English language itself, and not by the application of native words, which has to be evaded within the classroom (SPAHIU,2013). It is quite difficult for a teacher who does not know the requirements of the students. To some extent a teacher who is non native can easily connect with the students if he/ she are comfortable with the spoken language and the accent. It can help them to communicate in a better way with the students. A teacher who is a British by birth can speak English easily if compared to someone who is Spanish. So, for a Spanish teacher it will take time to get adjusted with the language which the students will be able to understand. Moreover, for a British English teacher it is not possible to get accustomed very easily with the American students who are more acclimatized to American English. For a British teacher it is important to know the grammar before learning the language where as American English does not follow the grammar and spelling like the British. For those teachers whose mother tongue is not English it is not easy to teach a foreign language and then to reciprocate to the needs of the students whereas for a non English student it is difficult to learn all the nook and corner of the English language if the teacher is not adept with the language. From the point of view of a student, learning, which is a process, depends primarily on teacher student relationship. The learner needs to co operate with the teacher to get what is required. It is a responsibility of both the teacher and student to make the learning procedure successful. So, it is important from both sides to put effort so that the teaching-learning process becomes a fun filled activity, involving every hearts who participate in it. Looking at the issues discussed so far, from a different perception, Barratt & Kontra (2000) explored the views of one cluster of students in China and another in Hungary, by instructing them to present their opinion and native English teachers and non native English teachers. They were free to pen down their encounters with their educators. Positive remarks made about the NNSs schooling in overseas cultures comprised of knowledge of culture, language authenticity, a much comfortable approach toward error rectification, humorous and positive personalities, and the implementation of new teaching techniques. Negative remarks made about the NS educators involved factors like lack of professional and pedagogical groundwork, poor teaching manners, lack of preparation and organization, poor understanding of the educational values and local culture, issues with diverse English accents, and lack of understanding of the students’ learning difficulties (Moussu and Llurda, 2008). Code-switching plays a major role in the English teaching manners adapted by a non-native and native English teacher. It is recognized as a prevalent occurrence in bilingual speech, and it is as a result not astonishing that a great amount of study on bilingualism puts emphasis on this theme. Most investigators, who have paid concentration to code-switching, have nonetheless been apprehensive about the discourse functions and sociological interpretation, i.e. the socio-pragmatic facet of code-switching. Due to this rationale, linguists who do not concentrate in bilingualism frequently by design presume that investigation in code-switching implies sociolinguistic study. It is surely an appealing issue to explore when and why a teacher opts for a linguistic diversity rather than more than one: this can be elucidated by metaphorical or stylistic inspiration, where elements such as the social role, interlocutor, topic, domain, venue, type of interaction and medium play an imperative function. In this situation, language transition can also be regarded as an informal prompt, articulating attitudes headed for marking linguistic distinctiveness or language (Riehl, 2005). In language classrooms, code-switching is implemented to smooth the progress of student understanding at a variety of learning levels namely kindergarten (Huerta-Macias & Quintero, 1992), secondary (Flyman-Mattsson & Burenhult, 1999; Gabusi, n.d.; Rethinasamy & Johie, 2008) and university (Greggio & Gil, 2007; Liu, n.d.). Educators also code-switch to fix difficulty or stillness in university classes (Ustunel, 2004). on the other hand, code-switching is a tactic for teachers to become accustomed with students’ English expertise level, reaching the teaching objectives, and playing responsibly the various roles expected from a teacher in a university setting (Chen-On Then and Ting, 2009). In the present era of technological advancement and modernization, the conventional methods of teaching have changed to a great extent. Education for the contemporary world needs something more than merely spreading knowledge. Today the teachers are expected to have profound domain of knowledge but they in addition need to widen a “rich repertoire of teaching strategies” (Downs, 2012) which must include efficient communication with the students, power to direct and make the students follow their instructions, guided exploration through the cultures and beliefs of the other parts of the globe, encouraging group work, encouraging individual enquiry and providing support for self-study. It is a normally established view that expatriate language teachers will encounter issues at some time in their profession of educating students from diverse cultures (Hadley, n.d.).  This paper attempts to find out the differences take actually takes place when an ESL class is conducted by a native and a non-native English teacher. We aim to find the comparison by conducting survey on five English and five non- English students. We will record their views mainly on the aspects like accent, fluency and mutual communication with the students. The comparison will be measured with respect to the English speaking and writing abilities of the students and as a result a short test through interview will be conducted among the participants. Also a questionnaire will be presented to the students through which their views and opinions will be recorded. However the survey questions will be designed with the intention of comparison and those are not at all meant to hurt the sentiments of any individual. The comparison will be aimed at studying the cause and effect relationship between the student’s native language and the teacher’s native language and their effect on the learning outcomes. The entire study will be based on the hypothesis that the native language of a teacher has no effect on the learning outcomes derived by a student. The results of the observation will be noted in details specifically focusing on the aspects of communication, grammar, accent, pronunciation, expression, code switching and level of understanding. The findings will be presented in a table highlighting the above mentioned facets. Research Methodology Nature of Research It is a generally recognized piece of information that research can be conducted either on a primary basis or in a secondary basis. It can be said that in a lot of scenarios that for the rationale of assembling data which is entirely at par with the research weight age, the secondary information are not always considered to be extremely pertinent characteristically. This naturally generates the demand for a study that is primary in nature. However the process of conduction of a primary research is far more time consuming in nature as well as the resources are comprehensive in nature. Further for the purpose of suitable implementation of a primary research, major portions of contributions in with respect to human resources and finance is required (Panneerselvam, 2004). Research Philosophy Research philosophy is a framework that guides the stance of the researcher. In this research, from the four research philosophies presented by Betz and Fassinger (2011), constructive-interpretive philosophy has been used. This philosophy “assumes a relativist notion of multiple, equally valid realities that are constructed in the minds of actors and observers” (Betz & Fassinger 2011, p. 238). This means it analyzes the reality from the perspective of observers i.e. how they look at the things and perceive about it. This research will aim at deriving results by looking qualitatively at the opinions of the previous researchers and by analyzing the opinions of the actual people attending the classes who will present their views regarding the comparison between the two categories of teachers. Research Design - Qualitative Approach There are different research designs that can be used in a research study. Research philosophy guides the selection of the research design. A research design can be classified as qualitative & quantitative. Qualitative research is a multifaceted discipline which involves a naturalistic & interpretive approach to the subject matter. In other terms it can be said that qualitative research involves how people are interpreting the subject of research. In the method of qualitative research various approaches like personal experience, case study, focus group interview, life story, historical evidences, visual texts & interactions, are used for collecting data (McBurney and White, 2009). The other form, that is in case of quantitative research mostly hypothesis & statistics tools are used. This type of research technique includes deduction of the facts & reaching a conclusive result. In both the cases various survey methods & questionnaires can be used but in qualitative research the questionnaire is usually formed with open ended questions which means the participants are given no options & they are given full liberty to write their opinions & suggestions. For quantitative method the questionnaire used is generally close ended where every question has some options. The participants are asked to fill up the questionnaire by choosing the options which they feel are appropriate. Questionnaires can be of pen & paper based or web based. This type of data collection is known as primary data collection method. Data can be collected from other sources like internet, archives, journals, newspapers etc. & this method known as secondary data collection method. The other efficient sources for data collection are market, consumers, stock exchange, government related agencies and other industry stakeholders. Focus groups & interviews are excellent tools for gathering data about in-depth beliefs & attitudes from a large group of people. Focus group generally consists of 5 to 15 people while interviews are conducted on a one to one basis. However the focus group method helps to generate more thoughts & ideas than individual interviews. The method of observation is an excellent means to study the behavioral aspects of individuals. In survey method, both open ended & close ended questions can be used. Through this method it becomes easier to gather a large scale data & helps the researcher to determine the perceptions & ideas of different people. Another method known as follow-up interviews is used mainly by marketers to gather the customer’s feedbacks about a particular product or service. The data collected through this method helps the marketer/ researcher to decide on the further modification or up gradation of the product/ service/ research topic. From the three most basic research designs as highlighted by Creswell (2009), qualitative, quantitative and mixed, this research study having being focused on interpretive goes with qualitative research design. Strauss and Corbin (1990) explained a qualitative design as a method that does not take account of statistical figures or numerical data rather is concerned with the qualitative data. This type of research is most appropriate for areas that are not explored so far (Strauss & Corbin 1990) and since the critical comparison between a native and a non-native English teacher and the learner outcomes in ESL classes is a rare kind of research topic, therefore qualitative research in this area is quite justified. Rumrill et al (2011) also explained that qualitative research gets in-detail data that allows studying several dimensions. The study will be based on the observation of two classes conducted by a native teacher and a non-native teacher respectively and the observation will continue for one week. Types of Data - Primary and Secondary Data Both primary and secondary data will be collected in this case to reach findings. Secondary data in the form of literature review is collected and different researches have been explored to study the subject matter. Magazines, newspaper articles, journals and books were consulted to get ample amount of data on the topic. Further to collecting and analyzing secondary data, primary data has been collected from five English and five non-English students in order to get deep insights and their original opinions on the issue. Original opinions of the students help collect actual data from the experiences of the students in the actual settings. This has helped reach a more reliable conclusion on how a native and non-native English teacher conducts a class and what relates their power, culture and language aspects with their teaching style . This research study having being focused on qualitative data and interpretive philosophy uses inductive approach to data analysis. Using inductive approach this study primarily takes into account the opinion of actual players and presents an analysis based on the data gathered from the interviews as well as from the literature while comparing the two. Researcher’s interpretation is also included to draw conclusion, as during literature review deep insights on the subject matter has been collected which has further assisted in data analysis. Research methodology used by the current research is presented through following research onion. Figure I: The Research Onion This research onion summarizes the research methodology of this research as paradigm / philosophy of the study is based on interpretive study, research approach is inductive, research design or method is qualitative whereas the data collection tool used to collect qualitative data is interviews and questionnaire. The study will be focused on one of the one of the five topics covered in the module reader, shedding light on the “Language, Culture and Power” relationship. Evaluation Design Evaluation design can be of three types- Exploratory evaluation designs help us in commencing an evaluation program to recognize which way out is best as a solution to the problem discussed in the research program and the methods that should be implemented to solve the problem. Descriptive designs help us to determine whether the program is being conducted as per plan, provides us with response about the programs offered & decides whether the program is creating the desired output. This doesn’t deal with problem and solution. Causal evaluation designs helps to present more information regarding the relationship between the motivational tools implemented and the outcomes obtained. It presents a cause & effect relationship. The evaluation design that would be appropriate for the present study would be causal since the research question deals with the issue of comparison between a native and a non-native English teacher and the learner outcomes in ESL classes. Results The findings from the observation have been represented according to the following aspects- Communication- It was difficult for the non-native English speaking students to communicate with the native English speaking teacher. Particularly the students belonging to China, Italy, Spain, Brazil and UAE felt that the words spoken by the native English teacher is of extremely good quality and since the ESL classes are for those whose second language is English, therefore the level of English for the non-native students happen to be of much higher level. In the case of the non-native English teacher, the students face similar trouble since the teacher’s culture has a great influence on their speaking and writing style. However they agreed that their teacher puts good amount of effort to communicate with them. Grammar- The level of grammar taught by the native English teacher is of superior quality while the level of grammar taught by the non-native English teacher is easier to understand. The native English teacher puts greater emphasis on correct usage of verb, noun, adverb and preposition while the non-native English teacher puts greater emphasis on expressing the thoughts in a proper manner. Accent/ Pronunciation/ Spelling- The accent of the native English teacher is quite different than that of the non-native English teacher. For instance the native English teacher spelt “Color” while the non native English teacher wrote it as “Colour”. This often creates confusion within the students and most of them are not sure which the correct spelling to use is. Code Switching- Switching from one language to another is prevalent mostly among the non English teacher which offers some benefit to the students who understand the other language since learning something becomes easier when it is learnt through the national language of the country. However it created difficulty for those belonging to other country and language. Expression- The concept of “Expression” had been greatly emphasized by the non native teachers since their point of view is that it is necessary to articulate the thoughts to the person with whom we are communicating because everyone in this world doesn’t speak perfect English or English to be precise however signs, symbols and body language is a form of universally accepted language that helps people of different countries to communicate amongst themselves. The thoughts of the native English speaking teacher was quite different, according to him/her it is of utmost importance to use correct English at all levels of communication since English is a universally accepted language and it extensively used in the corporate field throughout the world. Discussion Although the belief that the native presenters of a language are inherently superior teachers of that language than the non-native communicators has been questioned often (Canagarajah, 1999a, 1999b; Phillipson, 1992), several English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) institutions ensures that their students put greater worth on deriving knowledge from a native English-speaking educator (NEST) than from a non-native English-speaking tutor (non-NEST). This notion has been rightly summarized by Holliday (2008) in the statement, “I have heard influential employers [in the English language teaching industry] in Britain say that while they would abolish the discriminatory differentiation between ‘native speakers’ and ‘non-native speakers’ tomorrow, they can’t because their ‘customers demand it’ (p. 121)”. Although the instinctive features of a native lecturer of a language are hard to describe (Davies, 2004; Rajagopalan, 1999), a number of researchers have attempted to put light on these multifarious notions. For instance, Chomsky presented the Universalist affirmation that “everyone is a native speaker of the particular [language system] that that person has ‘grown’ in his/her mind/brain” (Chomsky, cited in Paikeday, 1985, p. 393). Though, Chomsky’s point of view is purely linguistic based and does not take into account the contextual constraints or social factors, and therefore does not let somebody use it as a socially-contextualized study of the matter. The findings from the study give rise to several points of thought. It has been argued in one article that only native teachers ought to teach English as they have the most excellent accent. On the one hand, this statement is has validity to some extent. Japanese English teachers, In Japan, frequently have very petite skill in speaking English and therefore their accent can sometimes be relatively poor. Because of this scenario, Assistant Language educators from English speaking nations have effortlessly found employment in Japan since the Boards of Education are putting their endeavor towards improving their student’s intonation and native speakers have supported more and more correct accent learning in the Japanese public schools. On the other hand, an Assistant Language instructor from Jamaica could be substituted after a year with a teacher from Scotland. It appears to be like this may not be perfect since apparently individuals from these two English speaking nations sound completely diverse so the kind of pronunciations they would offer will not be similar. When educating a language, uniformity becomes so significant and consequently there appears to be certain issues with this approach. On the other hand, in nations like the Netherlands, the English educators often possess very high-quality of English pronunciation, knowledge of grammar, idea of correct spelling and consequently students do not in fact need a native lecturer to create sentences for them. “Good English pronunciation does not mean using a British or American accent”;When a teacher belongs to Italy, an Italian pronunciation is rightly tolerable as long as the phrases are being pronounced in the approved manner. Accents are not a sign of poor lessons but it simply indicates the place an individual is from. Thus it can be concluded from the study and the findings that the native English teachers as well as the non native English teachers will be well accepted by the students only when they find it easier to communicate with them. Communication here signifies both spoken and written communication. However the teacher’s communication with the students also depends to a large extent on the student’s native land, their native culture and the way they react to certain things. Thus teaching doesn’t really depend on the teacher’s native land rather it must be considered as a mutual relationship between the teacher and the student where both of them should put equal effort towards teaching and learning respectively. 1. SPAHIU, I. 2013. Using Native Language in ESL Classroom. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2. 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Flyman-Mattsson, A., & Burenhult, N. 1999. Code-switching in second language teaching of French. Working Papers 47, 59-72. 7. Gabusi, V. n.d. Code-switching uses: The focus on the teacher. Applied analysis in a high school context. Available at http://www.facli.unibo.it/NR/rdonlyres/36CF5E3C-A2FB-4D24-B4D8-BDC2029D2319/81457/TesinadiValentinaGabusi.pdf 8. Greggio, S., & Gil, G. 2007. Teacher’s and learners’ use of code switching in the English as a foreign language classroom: A qualitative study. Linguagem & Ensino, 10(2), 371-393. 9. Ustunel, E. 2004. Preference organization in learners’ language choice following teacher-initiated and teacher-induced code-switching in Turkish EFL classrooms. ARECLS E-Journal. Available at http://www.ecls.ncl.ac.uk/publish/Volume1/Eda/EdaUstunel.htm 10. Downs, J. 2012. Teaching in the modern world – teachers need multiple approaches to improve learning in today’s classrooms and governments should nurture teachers. Available at < http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2012/05/teaching-in-the-modern-world-%E2%80%93-teachers-need-multiple-approaches-to-improve-learning-in-today%E2%80%99s-classrooms-and-governments-should-nurture-teachers/> 11. Hadley, H. n.d. Power Distance:  Implications for English Language Teaching. Available at < http://www.nuis.ac.jp/~hadley/publication/powerdistance/hadpower.htm> 12. Panneerselvam, R. 2004. Research Methodology. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Read More