Student Attitudes Toward Native and Non-Native Language Instructors

Abstract: This study investigates students' attitudes toward native and nonnative speaking instructors of Spanish. A quantitative questionnaire was administered to 292 students enrolled in three different levels of undergraduate Spanish courses at a U.S. university. Participants were asked to rate Likert scale items related to native versus nonnative speaking instructors' knowledge and teaching ability, as well as their own potential to learn from the instructors. Results indicate that students perceive native speaking instructors to possess advantages over nonnative speaking instructors with regard to pronunciation and culture, but not with regard to the teaching of grammar or vocabulary. Proficiency level and the native language of a participant's current instructor also influenced opinions. Key words: higher education, native speakers, second language instruction, student attitudes Language: Spanish, relevant to all languages While the English as a Second Language (ESL) profession has discussed issues related to native speaking versus nonnative speaking instructors at length in recent years, foreign language educators and researchers in the United States have been largely silent on this topic. This study investigates the attitudes of U.S. students enrolled in beginning, intermediate, and advanced undergraduate Spanish courses taught by native speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs) of Spanish. Below we first review the previous research investigating perceptions of NS and NNS instructors within both the ESL domain and the international teaching assistant literature. Next we present our study in which Spanish language learners judged native versus nonnative speaking instructors' knowledge and teaching ability, as well as their own potential to learn from the instructors along the dimensions of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and culture. Earlier Research Most early publications regarding NS and NNS instructors of ESL were anecdotal in nature rather than research-oriented. In a controversial and well-known article, Medgyes (1992) argued that while NSs have an advantage in linguistic competence, this alone does not necessarily make them more effective language instructors than NNSs. In fact, he suggested that it is precisely the NNSs' "deficient" linguistic competence and English language learning experience that give them several advantages over NSs in the classroom. These include NNSs' better ability to: serve as imitable models of successful English learners, teach learning strategies, provide more information about how the language works, better anticipate linguistic difficulties and overcome them, be more empathetic to needs and problems of learners, and use the first language (Ll) to facilitate learning. Medgyes added that while both NSs and NNSs have strengths and weaknesses, they have an equal chance of becoming successful language instructors, perhaps taking different paths to achieve that success due to different strengths and weaknesses. He also lamented the fact that despite the potential advantages held by NNS instructors, many often experience stress and insecurity regarding a perceived lack of linguistic knowledge, hampering their progress as educators. Phillipson (1992) also aimed to dispel the widely held notion that the ideal language instructor is an NS of the target language (TL). He discussed the reasons NSs are believed to be superior, including a greater facility in demonstrating fluent, idiomatically appropriate language; a greater appreciation of the cultural connotations of the language; and an ability to better assess whether a given linguistic form is acceptable or not. He affirmed that none of these qualities is impervious to instructor training, and like Medgyes, he suggested that NSs may be at a disadvantage because they lack explicit knowledge about the linguistic structure of their Ll, since the language was naturally acquired rather than consciously learned. …