This post was originally written in 2014 for the now defunct TEFL Equity Advocates campaign. The purpose of the campaign was to argue for the rights of non-native teachers in the face of widespread discrimination, particularly in employment. I wrote this article to support them and their objectives.

Firstly, let me say that the title of this post is a lie. I don’t wish I was a non-native English speaker teacher (NNEST). As someone from the UK who teaches English as a foreign language, the country of my birth is a huge advantage to me. As has been well documented by various people in our profession, I am much more likely to get a job than someone from Japan, Algeria or Brazil, no matter how qualified or experienced they are. For some students, having a native speaker teacher has a certain cachet, as in most countries it is unusual and many of them think that it means they have a better teacher as a result. So both employers and students seem to think that because I’m English, I must be a better teacher, which has got to be good for me.

As a result, you can’t be blamed for thinking that I am pleased about this situation. Without any effort on my part, I’m placed ahead of the vast majority of teachers around the world in the job market. But you’d be wrong, it offends me and I want to see it change. I’m also tall, white, heterosexual and male, and these are also a benefit to me, but I have no desire to live in a world where nationality, size, race, sexuality and gender are the yardsticks by which our employability is measured. I would rather be judged by my ability, experience and qualifications equally against anyone else who wishes to apply for the same job. It’s not to my advantage, but that’s the world I want to live in. So if you’re a NNEST, this post is for you. There are many reasons why you have an advantage over NEST’s like me in the classroom. 

For a start, you provide their students with an excellent role model of how to study and succeed. No matter how good a teacher I am, I will never be able to look my students in the eye and say “I know how you feel, I know how frustrating this language can be and I will guide you through it.” That’s a very powerful thing to be able to say, and I wish it could come out of my mouth.

You also provide a role model for specific aspects of the language, most notably pronunciation. Luckily in ELT we have largely disposed of the idea of the ‘native speaker as model’ in how we ask our students to speak, and now focus more on intelligibility and clarity in a variety of international contexts. You are perfectly positioned to provide a working, clear model for the students of how this is possible, and can provide them with strategies and techniques to help them get there, plucked from personal experience. 

This can also apply to other aspects of language learning. English is a messy and unpredictable language, and rules are broken so regularly they aren’t worth saying. Once a student has learned the basic structures of the past, present, future, modals and conditionals, they have to tackle all the horrible anarchy of phrasal verbs and prepositions. As a NEST, I never had to actively learn these things, whereas the NNEST has had to suffer through them to reach the level where they are qualified to teach them. This NEST wishes he could use that experience to help his students.

The use of the learners first language is an idea that is currently coming back into vogue, after a couple of decades out of fashion. A long way from grammar translation teaching, current thinking takes a more sophisticated look at how it can be used. It is clear that when the teacher is from the same linguistic culture as their students, they have a massive advantage in an accurate and nuanced use of the L1 over an NEST. I can get really good at Spanish, but my Costa Rican colleagues will always have an advantage in using L1 in the classroom. No matter how hard I wish for it, that won’t change.

Empathy and understanding are crucial aspects of language teaching. Local teachers will have a much better idea of the local environment and the lives of their students. You will be much more aware of what English means to people in your culture and what the possible implications of learning it are. You will understand the educational background of the learners and how that influences their current learning practices, and you are likely to have an understanding of the personal environment the student has to study English within. I can learn these things, but to reach your level will take me years, and no amount of wishing will help me.

Learning about the culture is one of the most interesting side effects of learning a language, and you would think that this is one place where the NEST has a clear advantage, but I’m not so sure. Firstly, there is no such thing as a culture of the English language. It is used in too many countries by too many people to be homogenous. So as a NEST, I can only represent a very small element of that and that is inevitably the bit that I know best. In my case it is British, specifically English, specifically the south of England – there’s an awful lot missing there. 

You can have a more well-rounded view of the culture and find it easier to pick and choose from the things that interest them, and you think will interest their students. You can offer your students insights into a variety of communities, backgrounds and viewpoints without the natural bias that I have towards my own. I can try and rid myself of this, but I wish I could resist this natural inclination as easily as it would be for you.

So it’s true that I don’t wish I was a NNEST at this time. In many countries, the industry is unfairly set up in my favour and some students unwisely think I’m a better teacher. But there are many reasons why you have the upper hand, and it’s not just the ones listed above. The tide is turning, slowly, but it’s turning. In the future you will have more rights and be more respected by an industry in which you are the backbone. And this is the point that needs to be remembered – they are many, many more of you than there are of me. You have the power, so use it. I just wish more of you realised that.

Read the follow-up post where I talk about the reaction to this article.

As with any of these things, there are things I would write differently now but in the main I stand behind this article and it’s arguments. 9 years on, I only have a couple of regrets. Firstly, my assessment of the native speaker model in pronunciation was wildly over-optimistic. Secondly, and worst of all, that this article remains relevant and topical almost a decade later is shameful, and proves that we still have work to do.

_{Photo by Jessica Da Rosa on Unsplash}