Open AccessCollaborative Teacher-Students Talks on the Identity of Native vs. Nonnative English Teachers
Author(s) -
Hadi Maghsoud
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of english language teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2329-7921
pISSN - 2329-7913
DOI - 10.5430/ijelt.v5n2p1
Subject(s) - identity (music) , first language , psychology , construct (python library) , pedagogy , mathematics education , perception , point (geometry) , linguistics , computer science , programming language , geometry , mathematics , philosophy , physics , neuroscience , acoustics
The rise of English as an international language and English globalization has rekindled the debate over native vs.nonnative teachers’ identity in terms of their strengths and weaknesses in foreign language education. To contributeto the debate, this study explored EFL learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of native and nonnative teachers’ identity.Six nonnative teachers and their students (N=40) participated in collaborative talks to construct teacher identity inseparate discussion sessions. The conversations were transcribed to extract the main themes through content analysis.The findings showed that, from the students’ point of view, nonnative teachers enjoy bilingual advantage, have abetter understanding of learners’ culture, and are more capable in establishing rapport with learners. Regardingnative teachers, the students believed that they enjoy linguistic advantage and transfer L2 culture more competentlythan non-native teachers. The teachers had similar opinions about linguistic advantage, advanced/elementary levelinstruction, and art of teaching. However, they did not fully agree with nonnanative teachers’ bilingual advantage.The findings indicated that EFL learners and teachers prefer native and nonnative teachers in different respects andthat nativeness is not the sole determining factor in teacher identity.