Delving into international students’ attitudes to NESTs and NNESTs
This study examined the attitudes of international students at university level towards native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs) in a Thai context. It also explored how the attitudes held towards these two groups of teachers shaped the participant...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2017
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12852/1/20326-65549-2-PB.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12852/ http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1059 |
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| Summary: | This study examined the attitudes of international students at university level towards native English-speaking
teachers (NESTs) and non-native English
speaking teachers (NNESTs) in a Thai context. It also explored how
the attitudes held towards these two groups of teachers shaped the participants’ learning practices and
motivation to learn English. Two research instruments; the open-ended questionnaire and the semi-structured
interview were employed for this study. The questionnaire administered with 31 participants was the primary
data collection tool. The subsequent interview conducted with 14 of the participants served as a supplementary
data. The findings indicated significantly differing attitudes towards native English-speaking teachers and nonnative
English speaking teachers in many areas. These domains comprised the teaching methods and styles; the
understanding of students’ problems; grading and marking; language proficiency; personality, classroom
behaviour and discipline; and the ability to communicate and interact with learners. Some differences were also
reported in the way they assigned work and arranged learning activities and their attitudes towards students.
Most participants given the choice had a strong favour to study with native English-speaking teachers. There
appeared to be a strong positive rapport between studying with native English speaking teachers and the
participants’ learning behaviours and eagerness to study English. Implications are made regarding teacher
training, particularly for non-native English teachers and language teachers, be it native or non-native, having
EFL teaching experience. |
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