Publications

University students’ perceptions of native and non-native speaker teachers of English

Authors
David Lasagabaster, Juan Manuel Sierra.
Year
2002
Journal
Language Awareness
DOI
ISSN

A small number of studies have addressed the debate comparing native speaker teachers (NSTs) and non-native speaker teachers (NNSTs). However, they have tended to focus on teachers’ rather than students’ opinions. Seventy-six undergraduates completed questionnaires seeking their views aboutNSTs and NNSTs on rating scales relating to language skills, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, learning strategies, culture and civilisation, attitudes and assessment.The students were asked these views in relation to primary, secondary and tertiary education. They also recorded theirsubject specialismand whether they hadever been taught by a NST. Their generalpreference was for NSTs, or for a combination of NSTs andNNSTs. Previous experience of NSTs had little effect on their judgements. Students’ subject specialism, perhaps reflecting differences in orientations to learning English, had slightly more effect.