Native and Nonnative Teachers of L2 Pronunciation: Effects on Learner Performance

Abstract

Both native and nonnative language teachers often find pronunciation a difficult skill to teach because of inadequate training or uncertainty about the effectiveness of instruction. But nonnative language teachers may also see themselves as inadequate models for pronunciation, leading to increased uncertainty about whether they should teach pronunciation (Golombek & Jordan, 2005). Although studies have regularly shown that instruction is effective in promoting pronunciation improvement (Saito, 2012), it is not known if improvement depends on the native language of the instructor, nor if learners improve differently depending on whether their teacher is native or nonnative. This study investigated the effect of teachers' first language on ratings of change in accentedness and comprehensibility. Learners in intact English classes were taught one class by a nonnative-and one by a native-English-speaking teacher. Each teacher taught the same pronunciation lessons over the course of 7 weeks. Results show that native listeners' ratings of the students' comprehensibility were similar for both teachers, despite many learners' stated preference for native teachers. The results offer encouragement to nonnative teachers in teaching pronunciation, suggesting that, like other language skills, instruction on pronunciation skills is more dependent on knowledgeable teaching practices than on native pronunciation of the teacher.

Native or Non-native-speaking Teaching for L2 Pronunciation Teaching?—An Investigation on Their Teaching Effect and Students’ Preferences

“…The participants neither received a significant overall improvement in their comprehensibility or accentedness in both the NST and the NNST's class. The discrepancy between the finding in Levis et al (2016) and the present study may be attributed to the differences of the teaching classes. In Levis et al (2016), the students in the NST and the NNST's class experienced almost the same teaching procedure, teaching materials, classroom activities, etc.…”

“…Levis et al (2016), for instance, found that the elt.ccsenet.org English Language Teaching Vol. 9, No.…”

“…For example, Levis et al, (2016) investigated the effect of teachers' L1 on ratings of the students' change in L2 accentedness and comprehensibility. The participants went through a 7-week course of L2-English pronunciation taught by either a NST or a NNST.…”

“…Nevertheless, the majority of the participants expressed a preference for NST for pronunciation classes, despite they rated the NNST as highly as the NST regarding their teaching performance in the 7-week course. Levis et al (2016) further examined the supplementary materials from the participants' interviews, and suggested that the participants seemed to believe that being taught by NSTs, they could have greater improvement by "catching" the native speakers' pronunciation just like catching a cold (Levis et al, 2016;LeVelle & Levis, 2014;Levis, 2015). However, the general results in Levis et al (2016) elt.ccsenet.org English Language Teaching Vol.…”

“…This question may lead to a debate on language discrimination against NNST. Despite there is abundant evidence showing that NNST may be as efficient as, or even better than NST in an L2 teaching (Levis, Sonsaat, Link, & Barriuso, 2016), the authorities of some universities still prefer to hire native speakers as the target language teacher. Few studies investigated this issue from the perspective of the students.…”