Native vs non-native teachers
Hi again everybody!
There is a hype in Spain that has been growing more and more in the last years and that is that native language teachers are far better that the non-native ones just for being native, even though they have no training as teachers. Is this true?
If you ask me I will tell you that it depends, so let´s see the pros and cons of it.
Native language teacher pros:
- Pronunciation and knowledge of the language: of course, they are supposed to have a perfect pronunciation and a native accent so the students can imitate that “perfect” sounds. Besides, all the structures, idioms, collocations are perfectly used… or at least they are supposed to.
- Cultural knowledge: Since they come from a country where the language is spoken, they can tell about their cities, the food, the education and all the cultural background that they possess.
Native language teacher cons:
- Most of them don´t speak the students´ language: this isn´t compulsory but it can be very useful in certain levels.
- They have picked up the language, they haven´t studied it: if you haven´t gone through the process of studying a language, you don´t know which parts of the language can be more difficult or tricky for the learner. Having experience as a language learner is plus when it comes to teaching it.
And those were my two cents. What do you think? Do you prefer a native or non-native teacher? Please let me know!
See you!
October 9, 2018
