Can a Nonnative English Speaker Be a Good English Teacher?

by Icy Lee

I wonder how many readers would respond to this question by nodding with confidence. My own answer to this question was always \"Yes, period,\" until one day an Iranian student in my low intermediate writing class at a community college made me read aloud a sentence he had constructed using however: \"Icy is a good teacher; however, she has a Chinese accent.\" My Iranian student's attempt to embarrass me in class led me to reflect seriously on this question: Can a nonnative English speaker (NNS)* be a good English teacher?
Since I moved to British Columbia from Hong Kong and started teaching ESL to international students, I have begun to realize that teaching ESL as a NNS and as a minority teacher is a very challenging task. In the college where I am teaching, I am the only Asian in the ESL department. In my first encounter with students, I have been asked such questions as: \"Are you a volunteer?\" \"What are your qualifications?\" \"How long have you been teaching English?\" In the past, I was never explicitly aware of the inner drive to be a good English teacher, though I definitely wanted to be one. Now I have become more conscious of this urge to be good, because I know that it requires much more effort to convince students that NNS teachers can be equally good, if not better, English teachers than their native speaker (NS) counterparts can.
After all, what makes a good English teacher? From my own experience and observation and from students' feedback, I gather that students' perceptions of a good English teacher are often affected by two factors: (a) the quality of help students get from the teacher and (b) their relationship with the teacher.
These factors boil down to (a) the teacher's expertise, which includes knowledge and training as well as teaching techniques, and (b) the teacher's personality, which directly influences the teacher-student relationship.
Given these two factors, why should a NNS teacher be in a less advantageous position than a NS teacher is? Do NS teachers necessarily possess better expertise than NNS teachers do? Or do NS teachers have more pleasant personalities or personalities that are more suited to teaching? For instance, a mythical belief holds that NSs are by nature more humorous and therefore are better able to establish good relationships with students.
In the process of reflecting, I could not convince myself that I was necessarily less eligible to teach ESL than my NS counterparts were. On the other hand, my Iranian student's sentence started me thinking about what advantages NNS teachers possess over NS teachers as far as teaching ESL is concerned. Because NNS teachers themselves have learned English as a second language (L2) or foreign language, they understand the needs and experience of ESL students better. As L2 or foreign language learners themselves, they have probably spent a great deal of time and effort trying to master the language. How they learned grammar, how they attempted to expand their vocabulary, and how they overcame the problems they faced during learning are all precious experiences that they can share with students. Their determination to succeed, and the fact that they did succeed, provide an excellent example for ESL students. In fact, NNS teachers themselves are good role models for ESL students. The presence of NNS teachers brings home the message that mastering English as an L2 is an achievable goal. More important, their presence can help dismantle the false dichotomy between NSs and NNSs. Once an ESL student asked me, \"How can I write like a NS? After all, what is NS competence?\" It is a fuzzy and unreal concept. Unfortunately, an ESL field dominated by NS teachers will only perpetuate the false ideal of NS competence that is so deeply rooted in ESL students.
As a NNS teacher, however, I do not mean to elevate NNS teachers and denigrate my NS colleagues. I firmly believe that what makes us good English teachers has nothing to do with our nationality or our accent. Rather, it is the drive, the motivation, and the zeal within us to help our students and make a difference in our teaching that make us better.
If there were more NNS teachers of ESL, so that they became the norm rather than the exception, my students would no longer look at me skeptically and ask, \"Are you a volunteer?\" They would no longer single out my accent and try to embarrass me by making me think that my NNS status makes me not as good a teacher.
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Icy Lee teaches ESL in British Columbia, Canada.
*Although I believe that nonnative speaker is not an entirely accurate description of myself and many other colleagues with similar backgrounds, for the sake of convenience I use this label in this article.
Vol. 10, No. 1 February/March 2000