From air traffic control to online web searches, English is becoming the dominant lang
uage around the world and many non-English speaking countries are learning English in their
native lands. In my home country, South Korea, learning English is necessary to gain admissi
on into prestigious universities and compete successfully in the job market. As globalization e
xpands, there is a greater demand to hire more English teachers in the country. Every public s
chool, from elementary to high school, is required to incorporate English classes into their cur
riculums. In addition, there are many English academies, international schools and foreign lan
guage high schools in the country. This fact implies the growing number of English teachers i
n Korea every year. There are also two types of English teachers: native English speakers (NE
Ss) and Korean English teachers. Studying TESOL, or Teaching English to Speakers of Other
Languages, I will be one of the latter type teachers in Korea. This paper will discuss the possi
ble advantages and disadvantages of being an English teacher in my country as a non-native E
nglish speaker.
Most Koreans think that English is mainly a western language. One news article from
Hangyeore, a Korean newspaper, illustrates a story about a female college student who came
from central Asia to study in Korea. With fluent English skills, she tried to find a tutoring job
in Korea. At first, some students were interested and called her to get more information. How
ever, once they noted that she was not from America, all of them rejected her as an English te
acher. This story shows the prejudiced tendency of Koreans to strongly choose English teache
rs from native English speaking countries.
Along with this illustration, Yuko Goto Butler from University of Pennsylvania found
that Korean students had selective preference for English teachers with American-English ac
cents over Korean-English accents(1). These two examples show how strongly Koreans prefe
r NESs as their English teachers. What is the reason for this?
First, Koreans are notoriously passionate for more education and academic achieveme
nts. Most of them think that having a good education is the best way to be successful in life. A
ccording to David E. Doms, who holds a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign or S
econd Langugage, Koreans learn English with great determination for more promising career
opportunities (6). Parents overspend on their children’s education and students are pressured a
t home to receive top grades. A NES is thought to be a highly qualified instructor and parents
seek to hire these private tutors. Recently, the Korea Times reported that 36% of parents spen
d $810 or more on a tutor per month (Yi). The Art of Teaching Speaking by Keith S. Folse de
picts the story of the Korean students’ great zeal for education. Bobby Wheeler went to Korea
to teach conversational English in a language school and reported that Korean students were
highly motivated to learn (93). Yes, they are motivated either by parental pressures or the desi
re to be successful.
Second, Koreans look up to and long for American culture due to the widespread infl
uence of today’s media. People can easily access Hollywood movies and American television
shows. Many viewers think that the shows they watch on T.V. portray the normal lives of all
Americans. These two reasons, the desire for better education and the tendency to look up to
American culture, make non-native English speakers want to learn only from NESs, especiall
y from America.
Even though Koreans tend to prefer native English speaking teachers, there are still pr
os of learning English from Korean teachers. First, Korean teachers are able to sympathize an
d possibly provide a more comprehensible explanation to certain English concepts. Ivan Garc
ia Merino from University of Northern Iowa reported that the difficulties faced by non-native
English speakers (NNESs) were fluent articulation and vocabulary while the least difficulties
were in grammar and idiomatic expressions (73). In my case, I learned the basics of English f
rom Korean teachers. They were masters in English grammar; they memorized most of the gr
ammar rules and were able to provide clear, understandable explanations that met my needs.
However, they had trouble speaking in English fluently and they seemed to avoid teaching the
class in English.
Second, Korean teachers have the advantage of teaching in their familiar environmen
t. When native-English teachers go to a different country and teach, they need to learn and adj
ust to another culture while paying careful attention to certain cultural issues, norms, and tabo
os. In contrast, when English teachers teach in their home countries, they do not need to expe
nd their energy to resolving cultural differences. Rather, they may have more time to focus on
teaching and improving their teaching skills.
Third, Korean English teachers teach in a way that English learners (ELs) can relate t
o and understand more easily. According to Folse, people make different grammar errors dep
ending on languages they translate from. For example, Koreans and Chinese have trouble plac
ing articles in English sentences most frequently because their languages do not have articles.
Spanish speakers usually make errors on the usage of the verb ‘to have’. For example they wi
ll say “I have hungry” or “I have twenty years old” (250). English teachers who share the sam
e cultural background with the learners are familiar with some of these. They can plan and bri
ng adequate, effective strategies to help and teach the learners well.
Fourth, there is benefit in the ability to speak in the mother tongue. Depending on the
proficiency levels of learners, teaching in the mother tongue may help beginning students lea
rn English better. Peter Medgyes, who has a PhD in applied linguistics and language pedagog
y, listed six pros of NNES as English teachers, and one of them was the benefit from speaking
their first language. “the recognition of the first language as the most genuine vehicle of com
munication between non-NESTs and their students in the monolingual classroom […and] the
native language proves to be a powerful teaching and learning tool in countless situations” (4
39). As I mentioned, I learned the fundamentals of English from a Korean English teacher wh
o taught me English in Korean. I used a vocabulary book which had both English and Korean
translations. I also learned English grammar in Korean and this bilingual approach helped me
understand the grammar rules more clearly.
Fifth, teachers are good role models who exemplify successful English learners. Like
the learners, Korean teachers studied English as a foreign language and became certified Engl
ish teachers. Admiring their success stories, the learners will be challenged and motivated to
master the English language. Stephen Krashen says that “only non-NESTs [non-native Englis
h speaking teachers] can be set as proper learner models, since they learned English after they
acquired their native language, unlike NESTs who acquired English as their native languagetwo completely different processes” (Medgyes).
NNESTs teaching in their home cultures, however, also has cons. The frequent diffic
ulties faced by NNESTs are English fluency and pronunciation (Merino 73). Because NNEST
s are more acquainted with their first language, they usually speak with accents. For example,
Spanish speakers usually pronounce the ‘y’ sound as the ‘j’ sound. Koreans enunciate the ‘r’
sound as the ‘l’ sound because there is no distinction between ‘r’ and ‘l’ pronunciations in the
Korean alphabet. If a teacher speaks with an accent, learners are more likely to follow the tea
cher’s intonation. Particularly, a strong accent could cause a problem for the English learners
whose goal is to communicate smoothly with English speakers (McDonald and McRae 150).
According to Butler, a number of studies have shown that accents and dialects have an influen
ce on the listener’s perception and attitude towards the speaker (3). This implies that a learner
may have a negative perception of a teacher with accents which could lead to showing a lack
of respect for the teacher and eventually interfere with the learning process.
On the other hand, some argue that having an accent is fine because English is almost
like a universal language. Michael Cylyne and Farzad Sharifian, professors of linguistics at
Monash University, discuss that “there is no word in the phrase ‘international communication
’ that would exclude the so-called ‘native’ speakers of the language. Native English speakers
are part of international community and they communicate internationally amongst themselve
s and with non-native speakers” (11). They also argue that English is more than just pronunci
ation and grammar. Considering these two differing views, the best idea would be to respect t
he accents of others unless the accents are too strong that international communication in Eng
lish is hindered.
The other disadvantage of NNESTs would be the fact that sometimes knowing the m
other tongue can cause more harm than good. As I mentioned above, teaching in the learner’s
first language can work in a positive way, such as when explaining grammar. However, teach
ers who are bi- or multi-lingual are also more-often tempted to speak in the students’ the first
language in class, especially when students face difficulties. Of course, explaining grammar i
n their first language may help struggling students gain a better understanding of the English r
ules. However, if NNESTs continue to explain every difficult concept in the learners’ first lan
guage learning English would be an even slower process. One of Stephen Krashen’s theories
of second language acquisition is input hypothesis. This hypothesis says that “instruction in th
e target language should be mostly understandable but not wholly so” (Geer’s PPT). For exam
ple, teachers should make the instruction a little harder than the lessons that learners already c
omprehend. Then the learners will be challenged to follow and show significant improvement
s. Therefore, the ability of speaking in the learners’ first language can cause problems and hin
der the learning process.
So far we have discussed pros and cons of NNESTs in their home cultures. The stre
ngths are the ability to explain grammar concepts more understandably to the learner, the abse
nce of culture shock, the fact that they already know the learners’ weaknesses and the best str
ategies to improve on those weak areas, the benefit of speaking in the same mother tongue an
d the good example of being successful English learners. The weaknesses include difficulties
in English fluency and pronunciation, and the negative effects of solely relying on the mother
tongue for full grammar explanations. Then, what should NNESTs in Korea do to reduce thei
r weaknesses? Also, what are the possible steps that the Korean English education system can
take to better help students learn English in classroom?
In order to improve on the cons of NNESTs teaching in their homeland, Korean Engl
ish teachers and future teachers should continue to experiment on their accents and fluency, b
ecause English skills are likely to decrease if not practiced. Many opportunities for conversati
onal English led by native English speakers are offered in Korea. There are conversational En
glish academies, informal English clubs and English tutors online. Among the various opport
unities, the best way to improve English communication skills would be to join an informal E
nglish club. In a café setting, groups of eight people led by an English speaker would meet tw
ice a week. The Club members would read selected English articles beforehand and discuss th
em at the meeting. They would also have casual conversations. Everyone in these English clu
bs would be allowed to speak only in English. Once a month all the group leaders and membe
rs would hold an event so that the members could connect with other English speakers and im
prove their English skills. Through these opportunities, Korean English teachers would be abl
e to build more confidence to speak with better pronunciation and become more natural Engli
sh speakers.
One way of improving the Korean English education system would be to combine the
talents and abilities of Korean English teachers and native English speaking teachers. Accord
ing to E. Park who looked into preferences of the Korean university students toward NESTs a
nd NNESTs, “the students considered that a combination of native English speaking teachers
and nonnative English speaking teachers is appropriate” (Alseweed and Daif-Allah 42). Kore
an English teachers can contribute their mastery over grammar or written English while nativ
e English speaking teachers can bring their excellent speaking and listening abilities to enrich
the English learning experience.
Another possible step for Korean English education system to take would be to form
a network to connect and learn from other English teachers around the world. In Korea, intern
ational English education conferences are annually held by the Korean Association of Primar
y English Education (KAPEE). This is a great resource for Korean teachers to share their exp
eriences with other English teachers –both native and nonnative- and learn more about Englis
h education in Korea. If able, attending international TESOL conferences held in different co
untries would be a great opportunity to make international connections with teachers and broa
den their perspectives.
In conclusion, learning English is almost necessary in Korea and in the world. There
are still barriers to overcome and improvements still need to be made for NNESTs in teaching
English more effectively. However, there are powerful tools and valuable resources to expan
d on English education and enrich the English learning experience. With technological innova
tion, creativity, and capitalizing on great opportunities, teachers can inspire students to apprec
iate and master the English language.
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