Non-Native English Speaking Professionals in TESOL

The question of what makes a good teacher of English has aroused researchers' interest for many years, and the existing studies comparing NESTs (native English-speaking teachers) and NNESTs (non-native English-speaking teachers) have focused mostly on students' perceptions of these teachers. The current study aims to explore in the first phase if there is a meaningful difference between Turkish EFL learners' perceptions of NESTs and NNESTs on their first encounter with them. The second phase explores whether any changes have occurred in students' preconceptions regarding NESTs within the course of time. The participants are 120 Turkish monolinguals from a private university. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires consisting of Likert-scale items in both phases. An interview session was added to the second phase to obtain more in-depth insights into students' perceptions. The findings showed that students had neutral perceptions of NESTs and NNESTs. However, in the second phase, the data analysed via qualitative content analysis demonstrated that students' perceptions were found to have positively changed for NESTs, particularly in terms of personality dimension. In both phases, students perceived NESTs in linguistic and professional dimensions, and NNESTs in pedagogical dimension rather positively. Öz: İyi bir İngilizce öğretmeni nasıl olur sorusu, eğitim araştırmacılarının uzun yıllardır ilgisini çekmiş ve anadili İngilizce olan ve olmayan öğretmenleri ele alan çalışmalar öğrencilerin bu öğretmenlerle ilgili algılarını araştırmıştır. Bu çalışma, ilk aşamasında, İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen Türk öğrencilerin anadili İngilizce olan ve olmayan öğretmen algıları arasında, bu öğretmenlerle ilk karşılaşmalarında anlamlı bir fark olup olmadığını incelemektedir. İkinci aşama ise öğrencilerin anadili İngilizce olan öğretmenlere yönelik yerleşmiş fikirlerinde zaman içerisinde bir değişim olup olmadığını araştırmaktadır. Katılımcılar, özel bir üniversitede öğrenim gören 120 Türk öğrencidir. Veriler, her iki aşamada Likert ölçeğinden oluşan anketler aracılığıyla toplanmıştır. Öğrencilerin algılarını hakkında daha derin anlayışlar kazanılması amacıyla, ikinci aşamaya mülakat seansları eklenmiştir. Sonuçlara göre anadili İngilizce olan ve olmayan öğretmenlere yönelik öğrenci algıları tarafsızdır. Ama ikinci aşamada, nitel içerik analizi ile çözümlenen veriler öğrencilerin algılarının anadili İngilizce olan öğretmenler lehine, özellikle kişisel boyutta olumlu yönde değiştiğini göstermiştir. Her iki aşamada da öğrenciler, anadili İngilizce olan öğretmenleri dilbilimsel ve mesleki boyutlarda ve anadili İngilizce olmayan öğrencileri de eğitimsel boyutta olumlu yönde algılamıştır.

"In Chapter 11, based on a review of the field, Nemtchinova, Mahboob, Eslami, and Dogancay-Aktuna point out that while many NNES share a desire to develop their English language skills in graduate programs (see also Chapter 6, this volume), programs in TESOL and Applied Linguistics do not see providing language support as one of their jobs. They argue this mismatch between students’ needs and program goals needs to be addressed through curricular reforms and that increasing NNES students’ language proficiency should become a legitimate part of teacher education programs. They offer practical suggestions on how to support NNES students’ linguistic needs in such programs."

This book describes the linguistic and pedagogical dimensions of a large action research project that deployed and extended the current work on genre pedagogy to an on-line learning environment. In particular, it explores how genre-based pedagogy can be used to support the academic literacy development of non-English speaking background (NESB) students in tertiary educational institutions to develop their academic literacy practice. The book reports on work with the Department of Chinese, Translation & Linguistics (CTL) and the Department of Biology and Chemistry (BCH) in a 2-year project called the SLATE (Scaffolding Literacy in Academic and Tertiary Environments) project. It includes theoretically and practically-oriented material that can serve the needs of researchers and practitioners engaged with the literacy development of tertiary students in both English-speaking and non-English speaking countries.

"Critiquing the dominant methodologies used in the study of attitudes and perceptions, Lipovsky and Mahboob in Chapter 8 stress the need to examine and analyse the actual language used by students that reflects their attitudes. They point out that while the majority of perceptions studies either use survey data to provide a statistical analysis of participants’ attitudes or use qualitative data to identify the categories of comments that emerge from the data, an analysis of the actual language
used by students provides a richer and deeper understanding of what students believe. Their chapter therefore examines the language used to comment on NESTs and NNESTs by using the Appraisal Framework in Systemic Functional Linguistics. The Appraisal analysis highlighted aspects of N/NESTs’ (lack of) knowledge that are doubled-sided, such as when it showed that NESTs’ lack of knowledge in their students’ L1 and NNESTs’ knowledge in their L1 could each be viewed either as an advantage or a drawback. The Appraisal analysis also highlighted affective issues that are downplayed by Thematic analysis. The analysis highlighted that students’ Appraisals of their NESTs and NNESTs often recurred throughout their essays, with long strings of text devoted to a given evaluation, with the result of an ongoing cumulative effect. Furthermore, the students often amplified their evaluations through intensifications or repetitions. This chapter thus questions ways in which attitudes and perceptions are studied in applied linguistics and shares an alternative approach that allows for a deeper examination of the same issues."