Native EFL Teachers’ Self-Perception of their Teaching Behaviour: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Due to a recent upsurge in the popularity of English, there is a plethora of native (NS) and non-native (NNS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers worldwide. While a number of research projects were conducted to investigate NNS teachers’ teaching styles, there is hardly any research available on the NS teacher. This paper presents a qualitative study that aims to explore how NS teachers experience teaching in a foreign language classroom and how their self-perception can be characterized. For the purpose of the investigation a group of NS teachers (n = 18) were requested to fill in a questionnaire and participate in a semi-structured interview. The results show that although the NS teacher’s inability to use the students’ mother tongue is very favourable in fluency-developing tasks, it can be a disadvantage in certain vocabulary building tasks. The term “seasonal native teacher” was introduced by a participant, referring to someone who decides to teach English temporarily, as a way of finding easy income in a foreign country; these seasonal native teachers are, in almost every aspect, different from qualified NS teachers. It was also found that a closer cooperation between NS and NNS teachers would facilitate teaching for both groups.