Why employing non-native speaker teachers makes perfect sense by James Scholl
I had been working as the Director of Studies (DoS) at a language school in Siberia for over a year when the time came to start the next recruitment drive for international teachers. My first year as DoS had been a steep, stressful learning curve, particularly with respect to various unforeseen challenges in human resource […]
How to Develop Your Students’ Communicative Skills Through Role Plays: Paraphrasing by Carolin Zehne
Previously on this blog, I shared a lesson plan which helped students understand unfamiliar (non-native speaker) accents of English, which they are likely to encounter outside the classroom in our globalized world. Apart from this, it’s also important to practice communication strategies in order to prepare students for the use of English as a lingua […]
How to Help Students Understand Different Accents Using Listening Journals by Carolin Zehne
The use of English as a lingua franca in our globalized world today has expanded dramatically over the last decades. Students thus need to be prepared for the use of English as a lingua franca outside of the classroom. However, in many classrooms around the world, there still is a dominant focus on rather traditional […]
How to Change the Law to Guarantee Equal Opportunities for Non-Native Speaker Teachers by Gerhard Erasmus
It is often encouraging to see how far we have come in terms of equal opportunities regardless of a candidate’s place of birth or first language. For example, I have a number of friends teaching English in Australia even though English is not their first language. It is encouraging because despite Australia being a country where […]
How to maintain a thriving language school through an equal opportunities policy and an ethical code by Julie Wallis
We are a small, yet highly accredited learning organisation and we employ professional qualified academic staff. The London School is regularly inspected by AISLi, Eaquals and The Veneto Region and our teachers meet the high standards set by these organisations. Over the past year we have been working on a research project. We invited learners from […]
Resilience is the key: my journey as a non-native speaker teacher by Eleni Symeonidou
I am going to share my journey and lessons learnt as a non-native in the ELT industry in the hope that others will feel that they are not alone if they have had unpleasant experiences, and empowered about their teaching identity. I come from Greece where I did my BA in English Language and Literature […]
I’m no native (English speaker) by Luna Checchini
I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t fascinated by languages. My favorite doll scared the hell out of me when I first met her because she spoke, but she eventually became my favorite doll nonetheless. She. Not it. I’m Italian, I treat objects as people, get used to that. I spoke […]
What do students think and feel about Native Speaker English? by Steve McVeagh
Why is this important? Six years ago, during postgraduate study, I first considered the idea that Native Speaker English (NSE) might not be the one English model to rule them all. I read Bhatt and Pennycook on Singaporean and Indian English, and others, and Modiano and Jenkins on universal concepts like EIL. There was support […]
My ELT Voyage as a Non-White Native Speaker by Sulaiman Jenkins
“Finally, it needs to be stressed that if ELT wants to develop into a profession rather than remaining a largely unlegislated industry, then it should aim to eradicate all forms of discrimination. To evolve into a profession, the ELT community needs to challenge and remove from its belief system the notion that ‘some speakers are […]
Why is the term ‘non-native speaker’ so problematic? by Sulaiman Jenkins
I’ve had a lot of fruitful discussions with Marek Kiczkowiak and Andy Hockley as of late, and it was from our dialogue that I was encouraged to inject another perspective into this international conversation on native speakerism. As a Black American, a ‘native speaker’ of the language, and a graduate of some of the US’s […]