Stavroula Haritou's Page

Long discussions are being held about NESTs(Native English Speaking Teachers) and NNESTs(Non-Native English Speaking Teachers). It is amazing how justified all of them are. What I can contribute to these talks are some conclusions based on my experience as a NNEST, since I am Greek and I teach English as a foreign language(FL) to Greek students.

I would like to start by mentioning the strengths:

a NNEST can

• give time-saving lessons through controlled use of mother tongue(MT)
• highlight similarities and differences between FL and MT
• easily recognise MT transfer during the Ss' production process and implement clever, on the spot remedies and guidance
• build rapport fast

On the other hand a NNEST's weaknesses are:

• occassionally incorrect pronunciation modelling
• excessive and unnecessary use of MT
• ignorance of collocations and fixed expressions resulting in unnatural spontaneous (unplanned)  responses during small talk
• inability to answer straightaway Ss' questions that have not been anticipated in the lesson plan

However, there are remedies to overcome the above weaknesses:

A teacher should

• thoroughly check and practise pronunciation during lesson planning (dictionary CDs make this very easy)
• anticipate his/her own problems at the lesson planning stage
• be quick to jot down his/her errors or queries during the lesson in order to study them at home and keep record of correct language
• create a checklist with practices to avoid and refer to it at the end of each lesson or week.
• invite an observer to give objective advice
• have constant exposure to everyday language (through films, TV series, songs, youtube videos, internet chats)
• read various texts (magazines, newspapers, novels, poems, internet articles)
• use reliable reference material (collocations dictionary, idioms dictionary, etc.)

Finally, let me state that whatever teacher (NEST / NNEST) one is, the most important thing is to recognise  weak points and aim at improving skills.

I would be particularly pleased to read your comments.