Teachers play an important role in the classroom, especially in teaching a foreign language. This paper reports on the students’ perception of choosing native or non-native English teachers when learning English using the questionnaire as a research method.
An Giang University Journal of Science – 2019, Vol 6, 100 – 108 PERCEPTION OF PHYSICIAN STUDENTS ABOUT STUDYING ENGLISH WITH NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH-SPEAKING TEACHERS Pham Cu Thien1 Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Information: Received: 09/08/2018 Accepted: 20/09/2018 Published: 03/2019 Keywords: Student’s perception, English teachers; English as foreign language ABSTRACT Teachers play an important role in the classroom, especially in teaching a foreign language This paper reports on the students’ perception of choosing native or non-native English teachers when learning English using the questionnaire as a research method Twenty-four physician students in the second year at Saigon Polytechnic College joined this study in January, 2016 The result showed that physician students preferred learning listening (62.5%), speaking (58.3%), reading (54.2%) and pronunciation (75.0%) with native English-speaking teachers For grammar and writing, most of them (87.5%) indicated the preference to study with non-native English-speaking teachers Therefore, Rector of the College and Dean of English Department should take into consideration the importance of teachers in teaching English for students Further research with a larger sample size and long term should be conducted to support this study’s result INTRODUCTION English is widely used nowadays Students of all ages all around the world have been learning English for different reasons; as a subject at school, for immigration to an English-speaking country, for travelling purposes or entertainment (Harmer, 2010) Besides the curriculum, the syllabus, and the materials for learning English such as books, videos, tapes, pictures, and so on, teachers play an important role when teaching a foreign language like English There are two main kinds of teachers; namely the native and nonnative English-speaking teachers The term “nonnative speaker” is often defined in contrast to the “native speaker” of a language, but it is very difficult to define precisely (Luk & Lin, 2007) The number of non-native English-speaking 100 teachers have been increasing and exceeds that of native English-speaking teachers in the world (Ma, 2012) The question is that between native and non-native English teachers, which ones the students prefer learning skills and aspects including listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and pronunciation with Findings then can help Rector of the College and Dean of the English Department choose suitable teachers for students to learn to get the most effectiveness Therefore, a research on students’ perception of studying English with native or non-native English-speaking teachers in class at Sai Gon Polytechnic College was carried out LITERATURE REVIEW The term “native” and “non-native” have been used to refer to speakers of a language (Ulate, An Giang University Journal of Science – 2019, Vol 6, 100 – 108 2011) The position of non-native teachers of English has been a controversial issue when this language started being taught internationally (Madrid & Canado, 2004) There has been a lot of research to examine the differences in the teaching of non-native English-speaking teachers and native English-speaking teachers in recent years Medgyes (1994) stated that native and nonnative teachers differed from the level of L2 competence and in terms of teaching behaviors students majoring in English and got the results that each kind of teachers had its own strengths and weaknesses, so they should complement each other when teaching English Lasagabaster and Sierra (2002) studied on 76 university students, in which there were 38 students majoring in English; the results were that they liked studying with native English-speaking teachers of the combination of both groups Clouet (2006) said that teachers from each group had different advantages and the same class should have both native and non-native teachers so that the students could get better knowledge The research result from Madrid and Canado (2004) showed that students’ preferences for native teachers increased with the academic level Ma (2012) found that there were differences in teaching approaches, teaching objectives and classroom atmosphere between native and nonnative English-speaking teachers in Hong Kong A dissertation by Tsou (2013) was conducted on 184 non-English major students in Taiwanese University, their perception was that both two groups of native and non-native English-speaking teachers had their strengths and weakness in English instruction; the disadvantages of this group were the advantages of the other groups in terms of English proficiency, the communication and the solution for students’ problems Alseweed (2012) studied at Qassim University with 169 Saudi male university students (non-English major) and the results were that they liked studying with native English teacher, especially at the higher level; however, they also showed their interest in studying with non-native English speakers because of their provision of the serious learning environment and clear answer for students’ asking Walkinshaw and Duong (2012) carried out a research on 50 third-year English major students in two universities in Vietnam and got that English competence was the one which the respondents chose the native English-speaking teacher Moreover, all other qualities such as teaching experience, qualifications, friendliness, enthusiasm, the abilities to deliver interesting and informative classes were valued for both groups of teachers Xiaoru (2008) studied 75 university Walkinshaw and Duong (2014) stated that nonnative English-speaking teachers had better grammar explanation and classroom interaction, while others were good at pronunciation, language use and culture Çakir and Demir (2013) reported that native English-speaking teachers were better at teaching speaking, listening and pronunciation whereas non-native English-speaking teachers were excellent at making communication with their students; and teaching grammar (Çakir & Demir, 2013; Tosuncuoglu, 2017) Sevy-Biloon (2017) and Yazawa (2017) also agreed that native English teachers had better pronunciation than non-native English-speaking teachers The above information mentioned a lot about the advantages and disadvantages of studying English with native and non-native English-speaking teachers, mainly for university students There was no research on the students’ perception at vocational schools or colleges, especially physician students This research will find the perceptions of physician students at Sai Gon Polytechnic College in Ho Chi Minh City so that the policy makers can take into consideration the importance of teachers’ approach in teaching English for students in this level RESEARCH METHODOLOGY One cross-sectional survey was done in January 2016 to collect data by using a questionnaire which was designed by referring to the previous 101 An Giang University Journal of Science – 2019, Vol 6, 100 – 108 research (Walkinshaw & Duong, 2014; Ma, 2012; Torres, 2004) However, the question in this research only focused on students’ perception of studying listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and pronunciation with native and nonnative English-speaking teachers The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to prevent from a misunderstanding from the responding students then it was translated into English later for the paper After the questionnaire was designed, it was showed to the two experts on TESOL teaching for comments After correcting following the comments from two experts, the questionnaire was tested by five testers to know that whether they could understand or not, also to be sure that the questionnaire was good enough Data then were collected at one point of the time in January 2016 with all senior physician students (N=24) in the seventh batch of Sai Gon Polytechnic College in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam The unclear questions were explained directly to the participants They had to choose either native English-speaking teachers or nonnative English-speaking teachers for each skill, and they have to decide to select the most important reason for their choice The implementation of the data collection referred to the Five steps in the Process of Data collection (Creswell, 2012) including identifying the participants and sites, getting permission, obtaining data from the designed questionnaire, organizing the collected information correctly, and doing survey in the class for this study Microsoft Office Excel was used for data entry and statistical analyses Double entry was done to prevent from errors and to be sure no errors appeared Descriptive analysis, mainly the percentage was used for data analysis FINDINGS 4.1 Students’ perception of studying listening skill with English teachers Table showed that the native English-speaking teacher was preferred to non-native Englishspeaking teachers when studying listening with the percentage of 62.5% and 37.5%, respectively Most of the students (62,5%) liked studying listening with native English-speaking teachers The main reason was that their English would be improved faster (46,7%), some of the students liked native English-speaking teacher because they could have a better understanding (20,0%) and they had no shyness to ask questions when they had a problem (20,0%) The non-native English-speaking teacher was also chosen by 37,5% students They liked studying with them as they could follow without constraints when being asked or given instructions during the lesson Table Students’ perception of studying listening skill with English teachers (N=24) Opinions Like studying with native English teacher N (%) 15 (62,5) Reasons N Improve English fast Easy to follow Easy to understand No shy when asking Improve English fast Like studying with nonnative English teacher (37,5) Easy to follow Easy to understand No shy when asking 102 An Giang University Journal of Science – 2019, Vol 6, 100 – 108 4.2 Students’ perception of studying speaking skill with English teachers when mentioning about speaking a certain language On the contrary, the students chose the non-native English teacher explained that they chose this option because they could understand easily when teacher required them to practice speaking (70,0%) Both sides had their own ideas, but the results showed that the selection of native English-speaking teacher was much higher than non-native English-speaking teachers in speaking skill The percentage of students choosing the native English-speaking teacher (58,3%) for speaking skill was also higher than non-native Englishspeaking teacher (41,7%) (Table 2) The ones selecting the native English-speaking teacher gave the very persuasive reason that these teachers could speak more accurately than the others (71,4%) because of their mother tongue language The term “speak accurately” is the popular one Table Student’s perception of studying speaking skill with English teachers (N=24) Opinions N (%) Like studying with native English teacher 14 (58,3) Reasons N Improve English fast Speak more accurately 10 Easy to understand No shy when asking Improve English fast Like studying with nonnative English teacher Speak more accurately 10 (41,7) Easy to understand No shy when asking 4.3 Students’ perception of studying reading skill with English teachers percentage was not very different, it showed the tendency of students Most of them thought the native English teacher could make them improve English fast (53,8%) The counterpart group said that the non-native English teacher could explain the lesson more clearly, simply and made them understand more easily Similar to listening and speaking skills, the total number of students choosing the native Englishspeaking teacher (54,2%) in learning reading skills was higher than the non-native Englishspeaking teacher (45,8%) (Table 3) Although the Table Students’ perception of studying reading skill with English teachers (N=24) Opinions Like studying with native English teacher Like studying with nonnative English teacher N (%) 13 (54,2) 11 (45,8) Reasons N Improve English fast Easy to follow Easy to understand No shy when asking Improve English fast Easy to follow 103 An Giang University Journal of Science – 2019, Vol 6, 100 – 108 Easy to understand No shy when asking 4.4 Students’ perception of studying writing skill with English teachers inviting the teacher It was surprised that only three students chose the native English-speaking teachers when studying writing skill, two of them chose those native English teachers because they felt no shyness when asking, only one student thought it was easy to follow what his or her native English teacher taught For writing skill, it was very interesting that 21/24 learners (87,5%) liked studying with the nonnative English-speaking teacher (Table 4) The reasons were easy to follow (61,9%) and easy to understand (38,1%) the lesson This writing skill should be considered by the school leader when Table Students’ perception of studying writing skill with English teachers (N=24) Opinions N (%) Like studying with native English teacher Like studying with non-native English teacher Reasons N Improve English fast (12,5) Easy to follow Easy to understand No shy when asking Improve English fast 21 (87,5) Easy to follow 13 Easy to understand No shy when asking 4.5 Students’ perception of studying grammar with English teachers also easy for them to follow the lecture (52.4%), especially with the complex grammar structure Only three students chose native English-speaking teachers because they thought it was easy for them to follow the grammar lesson, and they had no shyness to ask questions in the class The same as writing skill, 87,5% students liked learning grammar with the non-native Englishspeaking teacher (Table 5) They said that it was easy for them to understand (42,9%), and it was Table Students’ perception of studying grammar with English teachers (N=24) Opinions N (%) Reasons N Improve English fast Like studying with native English teacher (12,5) Easy to follow Easy to understand No shy when asking Like studying with nonnative English teacher 21 (87,5) Improve English fast Easy to follow 104 11 An Giang University Journal of Science – 2019, Vol 6, 100 – 108 Easy to understand No shy when asking 4.6 Students’ perception of studying pronunciation with English teachers Table showed that three-fourths students (75%) liked studying this skill with the native Englishspeaking teacher All of them gave the same reason that the native English-speaking teacher pronounced completely accurately while the non-native English-speaking teacher sometimes made mistakes The term “pronounce accurately” was also very popular when talking about the pronunciation of a language It was obvious that no one in the research had a different idea except for 25 % leaners chose the nonnative English teacher because of being not shy in the class (5 cases) or being able to improve English faster (one case) Table Students’ perception of studying pronunciation with English teachers (N=24) Opinions N (%) Reasons N Improve English fast Like studying with native English teacher 18 (75,0) Easy to follow Pronounce accurately 18 No shy when asking Improve English fast Like studying with nonnative English teacher (25,0) Easy to follow Pronounce accurately No shy when asking DISCUSSION the students because of the tradition way of studying They have to master these skills to pass the tests at school and university or college Besides, the details of the lesson and the content must be remembered carefully Also, if students have some difficulties in learning or doing the exercises or even the content of the lesson, teachers can find suitable ways to show them to understand fast These problems may not be solved easily by the native teacher in details because of the language barrier Moreover, native teachers were lack of knowledge of the students’ mother tongue, this influenced the lack of sympathy between the teacher and students, especially at the elementary and intermediate levels (Madrid and Canado, 2004) like the students in this research Therefore, the reasons why they chose non-native English-speaking There have been arguments against the native and non-native dichotomy (Ma, 2012) Different teachers have different strengths and weakness, and it depends on how students view individual teachers, of course, students will not give the same opinions (Harmer, 2010) However, the students would master and understand the lecture much more easily and successfully when they like the teacher they are studying with This part of the paper does not show who is the better teacher but only discuss student’s perception when choosing a teacher in learning English Most students in this research like studying grammar and writing skill with the non-native English teacher (87,5%) This can be explained that these two skills are being required highly to 105 An Giang University Journal of Science – 2019, Vol 6, 100 – 108 teachers was easy to follow for writing (N=13) and grammar (N=11) This high percentage of students chose the non-native English-speaking teachers when studying grammar also agrees with Walkinshaw and Duong (2014), Çakir and Demir (2013), and Tosuncuoglu (2017) that these teachers had better grammar explanation and teaching experiences for these subjects is easy for students to follow and practice speaking and pronunciation because they have complete confidence Therefore, the native English-speaking teacher should be in charge of guiding this skill if possible For the other skills such as listening, speaking and reading skills, the percentage of students liked studying with the native teacher is higher than the non-native English-speaking teacher This agrees with Çakir and Demir (2013) that native Englishspeaking teachers were better at speaking and listening These findings can be considered that native English-speaking teachers for these skills were always in the higher priority in general as native teachers could speak English better than non-native counterpart and used it as a natural means of communication in class (Árva & Medgyes, 2000; Madrid & Canado, 2004), so the students would prefer to study with native English-speaking teachers Pronunciation is one of the most important aspects of a language (Çakir & Baytar, 2014) when studying a foreign language In this research, three-fourths students liked studying pronunciation with the native English teacher It is obvious that the native ones can pronounce more accurately both the sound and the ways of pronouncing because of their mother tongue Sevy-Biloon (2017), Çakir and Demir (2013), Walkinshaw and Duong (2014), and Yazawa (2017) also agreed that native English teachers had better pronunciation than non-native Englishspeaking teachers Native English-speaking teachers can have better accurate pronunciation because they master the language they teach, have a greater self-confidence (Madrid & Canado, 2004) As a result, using English accurately is the most important one voted by students in this study when they gave their perception of studying pronunciation (N=18) with foreign English teachers Obviously, the increase in using English in the world will affect both local languages and English then it gives the increase to new hybrid language varieties (Foley, 2014), that is what the learners want to minimize Moreover, human communication can happen between the speaker and the listener if they understand each other Both speaker and listener have to perform their language in simple terms The speaker has to convert his message into spoken language and transfer to the listener, while the listener has to understand the language of the speaker If one pronounces the words incorrectly, the other cannot understand Therefore, the accurate pronunciation is the most essential element in communication When pronunciation is correct, it The paper showed some interesting findings about student’s perception when choosing the teachers to learn English However, the result should have been better if the sample size had been bigger and the data had collected from more sources The data from this paper is only got from one physician class in Sai Gon Polytechnic College and then analyzed, discussed and came to some conclusions Furthermore, no students had the ideas to welcome both native and non-native English teachers in the same class like the research of Clouet (2006) that native and nonnative English teacher in the same class was ideal for English teaching In summary, the opinions of the students from this research were sometimes very different; however, it could present the real situation and ideas of students when choosing teachers for studying English This result can be used as references in the school when inviting teachers for each skill or topic, and also for further research in the future CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATIONS 106 AND An Giang University Journal of Science – 2019, Vol 6, 100 – 108 Foley, J.A (2014) “Ante et Retro Occulata”: Looking back and looking forward International Journal of Innovation in English language, 3, 73-85 Physician students of the seventh batch in Sai Gon Polytechnic College preferred learning listening (62,5%), speaking (58,3%), reading (54,2%) and pronunciation (75,0%) with native Englishspeaking teachers For grammar and writing, most of the learners (87,5%) wanted to study with nonnative English-speaking teachers Therefore, Rector of the College and Dean of English Department should take into consideration the importance of teachers in teaching English for students Further research should be continued doing with larger sample size and long-term study to find more useful results Lasagabaster, D & Sierra, J.M (2002) University Students’ Perceptions of Native and Non-native Speaker Teachers of English Language Awareness, 11 , 2002 Luk, J C M & Lin, A M Y (2007) Classroom interactions as cross-cultural encounters: Native speakers in EFL lessons Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Ma, L.P.F (2012) Perceived Teaching Behaviour of Native and Non-native English-speaking Teachers in Hong Kong: Are There any Differences? 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