Asian ESL learners perception on the issue of native vs nonnative...
CRITIQUE:
The Attitudes of ESL Students Towards Nonnative English Language Teachers
by: Lucie Moussu
Purdue University, USA
The highly debated issue of native vs. nonnative teacher is a trend that has recently emerged in the English Language Teaching (ELT). The capability of nonnative teacher has been put into question so many times in the past. Fortunately, with the introduction of the standard qualifying certificates for ESL teachers, the color of the eyes and hair or the paleness of one’s skin no longer holds the sole validity of one’s ability to teach the English language.
The study is not set out to investigate the dichotomous distinction between NEST and NNEST but rather it focused more into analyzing the common perceptions of students toward their nonnative teachers in relation to their authority and ability to teach the English language despite the fact that it is considered their second language also.
The participants of the study are rather diverse wherein there are students representing Asia, Latin America among others. They were given a set of questionnaire to be given at the initial part of their class. The same questionnaire is to be answered again by the end of the program to determine any positive or negative changes on the original perceptions of the students regarding their nonnative teachers. Though the result of the study represents a generally positive perception towards their nonnative teachers, it is interesting to note that there is still an existing discrimination when it comes to the instruction of the English language, exclusively from certain racial group.
According to the data that was gathered, Korean and Chinese students exhibited a rather negative recognition of the ability of their nonnative teachers while the Latin Americans and the Japanese showed a positive outlook on the matter.
Although it was mentioned in the study that cultural ethnicity has no weight whatsoever in the ratings of the NNEST (Japanese students having considerably more positive ratings compared with their Asian counterparts), it is I think best to analyze the difference of the countries' social attitude towards globalization. English, with its roots in the Western country particularly in and the America and the UK, is sometimes seen as being under the sway of colonial imperialism. China and Korea have been highly homogenous countries and it is only until recently that they tried to assimilate with the rest of the world, probably having not much of a choice due to the emerging international consumerism. Japan on the other hand has long been open to changes and international trade much earlier than the other two countries. Further analyzing this factor could explain the negative perception of the two countries toward NNEST. Though I do not mean that they indeed exhibited a sort of discrimination towards racial authority in ELT, I believe that there are other variables affecting their perception of their NNEST. Regrettably, the study failed to have a deeper analysis on this matter since it is pretty much limited.
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