The contentious issue of (non)nativeness remains unanswered. Nowadays, being an NNEST or NEST should not count but rather teachers' professional capabilities. The presentation provides a forum for reflection and discussion about NNESTs. We should value professional and personal qualities over ‘nativeness.’ The skills and qualities that make an effective language teacher are the most significant. Both ‘NESTs’ and ‘NNESTs’ are expected to be competent teachers, each with excellent professional skills. What can non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) perform better? What can native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) manage better?

1. NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHER
OR
NON- NATIVE ENGLISH
TEACHER?
This is my question.
Halina Ostankowicz- Bazan
8/2/2017

2. IS ENGLISH A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?
 In the fields of business, academics, science, computing, education, transportation, politics and
entertainment, English is already established as the de facto lingua franca.
 The UN, currently uses five official languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese,
and an estimated 85% of international organizations have English as at least one of their official
languages (French comes next with less than 50%).
 About one third of international organizations (including OPEC, EFTA and ASEAN) use English
only, and this figure rises to almost 90% among Asian international organizations.
 English is crucially important for developing international markets, especially in the areas of tourism
and advertising, and mastery of English also provides access to scientific, technological and
academic resources which would otherwise be denied developing countries.

3. Global English

5. WORLD MAP OF COUNTRIES BY ENGLISH BEING THEIR
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

6. The percentage of native English speakers living in
"inner circle" English-speaking countries.
Native speakers are now substantially outnumbered worldwide by second-
language speakers of English
 United States (64.3%)
 United Kingdom (16.7%)
 Canada (5.3%)
 Australia (4.7%)
 South Africa (1.3%)
 Republic of Ireland (1.1%)
 New Zealand (1%)
Other (5.6%)

7. English-speaking world
English is the third largest language by number of native speakers, after
Mandarin and Spanish.
David Crystal calculates that non-native speakers as of 2003 outnumbered
native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.
When combining native and non-native speakers, English is the second most
widely spoken language worldwide.
Besides the major varieties of English, such as American English, British
English, Indian English, Canadian English, Australian English, Irish English,
New Zealand English and their sub-varieties, countries such as South Africa, the
Philippines, Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect
continua ranging from English-based creole languages to Standard English.

8. If I were in charge of a language-teaching institution, I would
want to know four things about applicants: are they fluent?
are they intelligible? do they know how to analyze language?
are they good teachers? I would not be interested in where
they were born, what their first language was, or whether
they had a …
― DAVID CRYSTAL

9. WHO IS A NATIVE SPEAKER?
“A native speaker (NS) of a language is a person who has
acquired the language a their first language in childhood.
Native speakers are considered to know this language
intuitively, and to use it accurately, fluently and
appropriately.”
(Scott Thornbury, An A-Z of ELT)

10. “born in an English speaking country” and “grew up speaking English at home”
DAN BAINES

11. NNEST (/ɛnˈnɛst/ en-NEST) or non-native English-speaking
teachers is an acronym that refers to the growing body of English language teachers who speak
English as a foreign or second language. The term was coined to highlight the dichotomy between
native English-speaking teachers (NEST) and non-native English-speaking teachers (NNEST).
Issues related to NNESTs attract the attention of language teachers, language specialists, teacher
educators, and graduate students from all over the world. TESOL[1] (Teachers of English to the
Speakers of Other Languages) organization has a NNEST Interest Section.[2] Two local TESOL
affiliates in North America, WATESOL (Washington Area TESOL) and CATESOL (California TESOL)
have NNEST entities.
NNEST - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NNEST
non-native speaker
noun [ C ] /ˌnɒn.neɪ.tɪv ˈspiː.kər/ /ˌnɑːn.neɪ.t̬ɪv ˈspiː.kɚ/
​someone who has learned a particular language as a child or adult rather than as a baby :

12. WHO IS NON - NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHER
Erzsebet Bekes & Marcela Carrasco re-examine the
NEST vs NNEST debate and argue that a change in
perception is long overdue.
With English becoming a global / international language,
NNESTs are gaining a competitive advantage: they are
bilingual and bicultural (often multilingual and
multicultural) as well as lifelong learners of an additional
language.
July 2017

13. NATIVE SPEAKERS IN ESL- NOWADAYS
Nowadays, the definitions of native speaker vs. non-native
speaker are outdated.
Many people today are bilingual- speak two languages or
more proficiently.
Non-native speakers have learned English in a classroom,
and so are more equipped to teach it to others.

14. NATIVE SPEAKERS IN ESL-
BEFORE
 Up until the 1990’s, it was believed that the objective of L2
learners was to achieve the level of a native English speaker.
 Native speakers were considered to be better ESL teachers,
regardless of proficiency or experience.
 Any difference from speaking as a native speaker was
considered a failure.

15. Native and Non-Native Teachers in English Language Classrooms:
Professional Challenges and Teacher Education 8 May 2017
Juan de Dios Martinez Agudo
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG,
May 8, 2017
 In today's world, being a NS or NNS should not really matter
but rather teachers' professional competences.
 This publication thus provides a forum of reflection and
discussion for all L2 educators who need to be aware of how
much they might offer to their future students.
 The controversial issue of (non)nativeness still remains
unresolved.

16. THE ‘NATIVE FACTOR’ – THE HAVES AND THE
HAVE-NOTS
…AND WHY WE STILL NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS
IN 2016
Silvana Richardson, Bell
Students showed a positive attitude towards NNESTs
The majority would rather learn from local NNS English teachers
instead of NS teachers.
They liked studying with NNSTs.
Most did not encounter problems with NNSTs because of their ‘non-
nativeness’.
NNSTs taught as effectively as NTS. Cheung’s findings

17. Using Kachru’s Circle Theory
Studies suggest that there were (in 2001) an estimated
 375 million users of English in Inner-Circle societies,
 375 million in Outer-Circle (ESL) societies, and
 750-1,000 million in the Expanding (EFL) Circle (McArthur,
2001)
 The vast majority of teachers of English as a second and
foreign language in the world today are ‘non-native’
teachers working in a wide range of settings in Outer-Circle
and Expanding-Circle societies. (p. 261, Bolton, 2006).
Non-native English speaking teachers = NNESTs

18. BENKE AND MEDGYES’
FINDINGS
 ‘Both NS and NNS teachers play an important role; neither group
should be dispensed with.’
 The overwhelming majority of the participants felt that it was important that
teachers should be able to translate (84.4%)
 Ideally both NS and NNS teachers should teach them (82%)
The least popular statement was ‘I wish I had only NNS teachers’ (5.9%)

19. “
”
Mahboob and Golden’s findings
 “Nativeness” was the single most frequent criterion mentioned in the
advertisements (79%)
 49% of the advertisements listed specific countries from which the
applicants must come
 95% the US
 89% the UK
 84% Canada
 66% Australia
 55% New Zealand
 37% Ireland
 24% South Africa
2 advertisements specified race: “white” or “Caucasian” native
speakers

20. IMPACT OF ‘NATIVE SPEAKER WANTED’ ADS
‘Teaching job announcements that indicate a
preference or requirement for a "native" speaker of English
trivialize the professional development teachers have
received and teaching experience they have already
acquired. Such announcements are also discriminatory […]
[and] ultimately harm all teachers (native or not) by
devaluing teacher education, professionalism, and
experience.’
CATESOLs position paper opposing discrimination against Non-Native English Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) and teachers
with "non-standard" varieties of English (2013)

21. MAHBOOB AND GOLDEN’S FINDINGS
 “Nativeness” was the single most frequent criterion mentioned in the
advertisements (79%)
 49% of the advertisements listed specific countries from which the
applicants must come
Australia
Canada
Ireland
New Zealand
South Africa
UK
US

22. STUDENT PERCEPTION STUDIES IN SUMMARY
‘Students are not necessarily as impressed
by native speaker teachers as one might suppose.’
Cook (2005)
Students generally value professional and personal qualities over
‘nativeness’
 Both ‘NESTs’ and ‘NNESTs’ are perceived to be competent teachers, each
with unique strengths
 Preference is inconclusive
 Some studies indicate a preference for both
 Others show a preference for NNESTs
 Others report a preference for NESTs

23. October 19, 2016
The groups who found native speakerism the
least justifiable are the people in jobs that
typically require a greater amount of
experience. What is interesting in the case of
academic management is that these are
often the people responsible for the hiring of
teachers as the further discrimination of
NNESTs. What is striking is that 73% of ex-
teachers felt that these hiring practices were
unjustified.
DAN BAINES

24. What do you think about the statements?
‘‘Native speakers are the best teachers of their own language.”
‘‘Asian schools are providing their customers with what they want: native
English speakers.”
‘‘I wouldn’t have my child learn English from a non-native speaker.”
‘‘Parents do care about the white face, even to the point of preferring a white
non-native speaker to an Asian native speaker.”

25. HOPES FOR THE FUTURE
 Having even opportunities for NESTs and non-NESTs
 Letting all teachers to be judged as individuals rather than
as representatives of potentially prejudicial categories.
Teachers who are to produce bilinguals should
themselves be bilingual, i.e., be reasonably fluent
speakers of both the target language and the
language of their pupils.
Butzkamm, W and Caldwell, J. 2009.

26. How to Be a GREAT ESL Teacher, No Matter What Your Background Is
The skills and qualities that make an effective language teacher are the most significant.
Why do we need to talk about native speakerism? - BBELT 2017 plenary part 1
https://youtu.be/GFRIna9yFx8

27. https://youtu.be/gzu8dcDk84g

28. Marek Kiczkowiak, PhD student at the University of York, UK
In the case of native speakerism, what maintains it in power as an ideology are various discourses in ELT
and SLA which through knowledge and social practice make it appear justifiable. While it is impossible to
review all of them here, this article will focus on four:
1. the ‘native’ and ‘non-native speaker’ dichotomy;
2. the ‘native speaker’ fallacy (Phillipson, 1992), or the view that a ‘native speaker’ is a priori better suited
for teaching English than a ‘non-native speaker’;
3. the comparative fallacy (Moussu & Llurda, 2008), or the view that ‘native’ and ‘non-native speaker’
teachers are characterized by a set of fixed strengths and weaknesses;
4. ELT recruitment policies.
The analysis of these discourses will be followed by a proposal to debate and discuss them with students in
class in order to raise their awareness of native speakerism in ELT.

32. https://halinaostankowicz.blogspot.
com/

35. What Advantages Non-native Speakers Have Over Native Speakers???
 They Understand Students Better
 They Understand the Differences between English and L1
 They Understand the Students’ Cultural Background
 Only if the teacher and students have the same cultural background.
 The non-native speaker might understand which aspects of the
students’ culture may not be compatible with English-speaking
cultures, things like, for example, greetings and customs.

36. What can non-native English-speaking
teachers (NNESTs) do better?
What can native English-speaking teacher
(NESTs) do better?
Could you please answer the questions?

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42. THANK YOU FOR WATCHING
Halina Ostankowicz- Bazan
8/2/2017