This issue has been discussed on this forum elsewhere, but the conversations have waned and non-native speakers seem to have accepted their doom. I decided to raise it again because the situation for non-native speakers is getting worse worldwide.
I am well aware of the advantages of a CELTA course and I do want to enrol. I can afford it - I have the time and money and I even want to go to a higher level and continue upgrading my qualification afterwards. I am sure I will be able to give a lot more both to my students and the schools that employ me as a teacher.
But I am afraid this is just a utopian dream. In China, where I live as an expatriate there is a government rule, which prohibits the employment of non-native speakers regardless of any teaching qualification! Recently an officer examined my application documents (Masters Degree in teaching English, TESOL Certificate, and 20+ years of teaching experience) and decided: qualified but not a native speaker. No job!
In South Korea the government sees only two options for teaching English in schools: native speakers or robots. So why should I invest in my qualification when there is no certificate in this world that beats a passport from a few countries on the white list? Doesn't this state of affairs totally eliminate the need for teacher development?
Continuing this stream of thoughts, I've drawn the conclusion that native speaker is a job. Here is why.
- when you are ill, you need a physician.
- to buy medicines, you need a pharmacist.
- to take a taxi, you need a driver.
- to cut your hair, you need a barber.
- to repair your shoes, you need a cobbler.
- to learn English, you need a -- native speaker
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It's really too bad that this is the case, because I've met non-native speakers who were some fantastic ESOL teachers; however, they had the same problems teaching in Asia. But I've also met non-native teachers who may speak and understand English to a decent degree they try to pass themselves off as qualified teachers when they are not. Additionally, where I live in S. Korea, I've met many native teachers who simply cannot teach.
You do have some fine credentials, and I bet if you look around you may be able to find a job at a British Council, or get hired in another capacity at a school, but be a teacher in reality.
Asia is developing, but it still has some extremely racist beliefs that run from the top to the bottom of society. I see this every day living and working in South Korea.
This is a major vexed question in ELT politics nowadays and it always has. Some say it reflects the hegemony of English speaking countries upon which EFL schools abroad thrive. Like it or not, native speaker teachers are a marketing tool. But this may not always be the case. Rather than nationality, employers or language policy authoritities may be looking more for "affiliation" to the L2 rather than a passport. For instance, I was born and bred in Latin America and hold a Peruvian and Italian passport, but went to British schools and universities so am fully bilingual. My employers, I believe, were looking more for evidence of a British education and proficiency in the language, as well as suitable qualifications, rather than British nationality. Having said that, I've had problems applying for jobs in Egypt, Thailand and Colombia because they will only employ British citizens for visa application purposes. This is sometimes out of the remit of employers, including the British Council.
Yes, I can see how it is disheartening. As a native speaker who works in Istanbul, I can assure you and anyone else that the only thing that matter is that you speak English very well-with little accent, a great teacher and life-long learner. That is the major divide.
That said, take the CELTA, because the reason we may be unfairly judged is because of the education style used when natives were taught growing up. In Turkey, it is a non creative memorization system which is why students usually love the way native speakers teach.
Non native English teachers are people who have a talent for learning languages and were either able to learn easily, or in a logical, grammatical way. This is not quite true for our students. Our students will go on to become many things professionally, not just English teachers, so they need to be taught with differentiation in every way; interest, level, outcome, groupings, learning styles, in exciting tasks which the teacher motivates them for. Since native English teachers have had, on the most part, a full learning experience from preschool up to university, they "lived" the way students need to be taught. I am only speaking on what I have personally seen here, but we look at student success or failure as our success or failure, which leads to better teaching and learning.
Search out the leaders of educational institutions who are native speakers. They will probably be more open-minded to giving you opportunities worthy of your depth of knowledge and ability. And is there some some creative problem solving that anyone can think of for the predicament of the nonnative excellent teacher?
I would tend to believe that the situation of a non-native speaker teaching EFL , even with the highest qualification, may be getting worse, but it depends on the country. However, universities continue coferring degrees on foreigners teaching EFL. Yet, there is something to be said about non-native speakers in the profession. The first and the major point on which non-native speakers lose is the current idiom of the language. In this respect, it is only the native speaker that is an authority. I have for years been hunting genuine English expressions (as for instance, culture-bound notions, not realia, the focus (of attention), rather than 'the centre of attention', a graduation paper rather than 'a diploma paper', the student will not go far wrong rather than 'he will not err much', a memento rather than 'a token', strings of onions rather than 'bunches of onions' production line/assembly line, but 'a conveyor belt', that passed for coffee rather than 'that was offered as coffee', an underpass/an underground pass rather than 'an underground tunnel', etc etc.). There is nobody like the native speaker who can help out when in difficulty for a genuine English phrase. However, I have known a non-native teacher who could rival the native speakers for her familiarity with Shakespeare's English. This is a result of education. Again, when I was learning EFL with non-native teachers in the early 1960s, I learnt 'a waste paper basket' as the only word to name the thing. My granddaughter these days has learnt the word 'a bin' to name the same thing with an immigrant to the US, but I had learnt the perfect Oxford English pronunciation in my day, while my granddaughter speaks something like midAtlantic, with the same immigrant teacher. It's a two-faced coin, finally: what can be gained through education, non-native speakers may be no worse than the natives, but the current idiom of language has been and will remain only the natives' province. Thank you. Marija Liudvika Rutkauskaite
Dolphin Teacher. Are you really a native speaker? Where are you from?