Job Discussion Forums

[JZer]

[rusmeister]

That's certainly true for Russia.

I find that there are plenty of reasonably competent teachers here - but they can only teach what they know. So I get a good number of kids and adults with fairly good grammatical/theoretical training, but they can't speak and understand poorly (the reverse is rarely true).

There's a strong demand for people like us (native speakers) because of that. Sometimes I have to reverse people's false sense of a lack of competency among local teachers, many of whom are trying hard to teach well (my mere presence in my small town is a significant goad to the locals to produce a better product, by which I mean teach better - maybe someday I can help put this town on the map as an English center! .

I guess availability of native speakers to practice with is not such a big problem in some places, but it sure is here.

[JZer]

[Sherri]

I prefer to hire teachers based on their ability, and qualifications, not on whether or not they are so-called native speakers. In Japan we hired Japanese nationals. Thinking back most of them had spent their childhood in an English-speaking country or a long time there as a young adult. They also got their TESL qualifications in an English-speaking country.

I think it is important not to mix up teaching methodology and the culture of teaching with being a native or non-native teacher. Of course there are lots of Japanese teachers teaching English the way they were trained in Japan (usually teacher-centered, translation method etc). So I think the issue is more with the method and training than the native /non-native issue.

Also I hate the pigeon-holing--like native teachers can teach "conversation" and Japanese (non-native) can teach grammar. I know lots of teachers who amazingly can teach the whole language! And this ability is not tied in to their native tongue but to their training and expertise in the language.

[JZer]