You may have noticed that this blog entry capitalizes the conjunction AND. There's a good reason for this. After so many years of working in this field as a teacher, trainer, and student, I've come to believe there's more to say about this than the simplistic dichotomy Native VERSUS non-native speaker teachers debate which overflows so many websites and conference panels.
I truly believe both native and non natives can perform equally well in any classroom setting provided they are, well…teachers! This means if you’re looking for someone who will teach you the language system and skills, make sure they’re qualified, professional and passionate about what they do. If your teacher displays these three qualities, you’re just fine!
These three qualities form an energy triangle, if I may say so, that strikes the right balance between the objective and subjective variables involved in teaching.
The problem is not the national background of your teacher but, many times, the students’ (understandable) lack of knowledge of what makes a good teacher. I believe being a good teacher has nothing to do with where you were born, but what the teacher does for the students. For example: Has the teacher the necessary qualifications to teach not only English but the kind of English you need (for business, for international exams, etc.)? Is the teacher preparing lessons properly? Is the teacher taking time to care for the human components involved in teaching? Is s/he caring for you as a learner after the 60 minute lesson ends? Is s/he being responsive to your needs? Is the teacher showing interest in keeping up to date with research in the field?
Schools who promise native speakers to their students sometimes care more for the marketing component than for the teaching/learning component. I’ve known of schools which would hire just US or UK citizens no matter what their qualification was…That means that in the classroom students would find a native backpacker just trying to get by on a teaching monthly salary while the visit a foreign country for a term. Not surprisingly the classroom results were terrible.
Business considerations aside, as a student you may want to know that years ago the TESOL association (one of the largest and most influential associations for the teaching of English) passed an influential resolution condemning any form of discrimination between natives and non natives. Please check it out http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=87&DID=244
I will keep posting on this subject matter periodically as I’m really interested in this situation as a teacher and as a human being. Any contribution to the debate is greatly appreciated. Send me an email. Thanks!
If you believe listening exercises or listening to native speakers are difficult skills to master, please do not feel this is just your problem. Many students of a foreign language find listening quite daunting, and even native speakers may find it hard to understand different accents from their own native language. Why is this so? And what can we do about it? Well, these are two good questions
I'd like to discuss here.
Why is “listening” so hard?
I believe that students of English as a foreign language quite often fail to realize that even in their own language hearing and listening are two
very different things. When we go for a walk downtown, for example, we usually hear lots of background noise, voices and sounds, yet we don't pay attention to them. We just don't care and we certainly don't usually worry about what people are saying. The exception is, of course, if something suddenly calls our attention-say somebody yelling. In that case we may want to pay more attention to understand what the problem/situation is.
Listening is, therefore, quite different from hearing. In listening we become active- ideally, we are active listeners. This means, quite simply, that we transform hearing into a creative and meaning making act that engages with what somebody is saying.
When we listen we usually:
1) make assumptions about what the other speakers will say. These are based on how much we know of the topic or the speaker.
2) anticipate our response in some way. If somebody is talking to us, this is because they expect a response-even if such response is just sympathetic silence.
3) make meaning of the utterances we hear: we make sense of things said. This is particularly so when we don't actually understand everything, yet we make the effort to put the pieces together and come to a sort of conclusion that gives us confidence: "Sure... I get what you mean."
4) make questions about what the other person is saying. We wonder about why they said so, what
they really meant, why they're telling this to us, etc.
5) think about other things at the same time. No matter how interested we are in what we are being communicated, there are lots of other cognitive processes going on. This may range from "Did I turn off the lights before I left home?" to something more serious like "I really need to do something about this constant back pain"
There are different kinds of listening
Another issue to should consider is what we understand by the word "listening". We don't listen in the same way to a doctor prescribing us some drugs as we listen to the TV commercials while cooking soup in the kitchen.
We also do different things with the input: At a conference or lecture we make take down notes. When having a telephone conversation we may ask somebody to spell out a surname. When we're listening to a friend we may ask follow up questions, etc.
In other words, different listening texts demand that we do different things with the input we get. And we normally adjust accordingly.
How to listen better
Giving these and other implications related to the act of listening, it is difficult to give very specific ideas about how to improve your listening. Nevertheless, here are some useful tips that have been tried and tested for years in ELT. I hope they will work for you:
b) If you’re doing a listening exercise, underline the key words in the task and try to listen for synonyms or similar expressions. For example:
Listen to the following person making a complaint at a reception desk of a hotel. She complains about 1– the hot temperature in the room 2–the loud noise coming from the next room 3–the bad smell coming from the lobby
c) If it's a real life conversation, don't be afraid of asking your interlocutor to repeat at a slower pace what they said. If it's a recording, just play it once to have a general understanding and then again for more detail.
d) If it's a real life conversation, make sure you read back figures or numbers and proper names to your interlocutor.
e) If it's a real life conversation, or a telephone conversation, rephrase what the interlocutor said in a different way and wait for some confirmation or rectification.
f) Throughout the process, try to relax and enjoy the conversation rather than freeze in anticipation of what you believe it's going to be a complete disaster. Usually, when learning a new language, we make poor judgments about our skills, and these tend to reify the problem.
g) When listening to long segments, try paying attention to the ways a person may signal a change of topic (e.g. Now, let’s turn to…; Right, let us now consider…; etc) or words that signal contrast (However, Nevertheless, But, etc.) or words that anticipate important information is coming next (e.g. What really matters is; in fact I believe that; the key here is; etc).
h) If you know you’ll be talking on the phone with a native speaker, always prepare a notebook and pen to take down notes as you listen.
i) If you know the person you’ll talk with comes from a particular region or country, try getting a bit familiar with the accent by listening to recordings or online television from that place.
j) It’s good practice to read and listen at the same time. Get some audio books which are easily available on the market. Use captions (subtitles) when watching a
k) Use the internet to tune in the
l) Meet with classmates or English speaking friends regularly and have a conversation in English. Do the same over the phone.
How to learn new words in English? How can I memorize all the word lists my teacher gives me? 
Are you preparing for an international or public exam? Are you thinking about taking the First Certificate, the IELTS Exam or the Certificate of Advanced English? Would you like to improve your skills at a more advanced level? If so, then take a look at this website: http://www.itests.com. There you’ll find interesting tips, exam practice activities and some suggestions to prepare for public exams. Also, don’t forget that the FCE and the CAE exams have changed! Want to know more? Download a summary of the changes from http://www.cambridgeesol.org/assets/pdf/fcecae_review5.pdf
Photo provided under creative license by puplepick via flickr
Here you'll find quizzes of all kind and level (from elementary to advance) to review your grammar, vocab, listening, etc.
