Native Speakers and English Medium: Another Fallacy?

1. Native Speakers and English Medium: Another Fallacy? Peter B. McLaren. Al-Ain Women’s College (Higher Colleges of Technology)/ University of Exeter.

2. “No Experience Necessary?”Kirkpatrick, A. (Professor of English – Hong Kong Institute of Education) Guardian Weekly, 20/1/2006. • “Global Demand for English language learning is stronger than ever, but why are the least able to teach still held in such high esteem?” • “No teaching or TEFL experience is required.” • “…teachers only have to be native speakers of English with a bachelor’s degree in any field.”

5. Johnston, B. (2003). Values in English Language Teaching. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. • “they are often judged not so much on the basis of their specialized knowledge (and much less their teaching ability) but on their own skill in using the language.”

6. Recruitment Bias? • APPLICANTS MUST BE MALE, NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERSWITH A FIRST DEGREE FROM AN ANGLOPHONIC UNIVERSITY AND AN EFL/ESL/EAP QUALIFICATION. (2003-2006) • The Center currently employs nearly 90 faculty (American, Australian, British, Canadian, Irish and South African) and is expanding. (2007) • They forgot the 3 New Zealanders!

7. Linguistic Imperialism, ‘Diffusion of English’, Monolingual Stupidity & Linguicism. • “…a belief that cognitive strategies are universal – that learning styles found to be effective for students from one community may be assumed to be equally effective for students from others.” - Canagarajah, A. S. (1999). • “…monolingual stupidity or monolingual naivete or monolingual reductionism,” - Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2001).

8. “…interactional norms, genres and speech-styles across languages,” - Cameron, D. (2004). • ‘Diffusion of English’ paradigm - Tsuda, Y. (1994).

9. Phillipson’s Fallacies (1992) • English is best taught monolingually. • The ideal teacher of English is a native speaker. • The earlier English is taught, the better the results. • The more English is taught, the better the results. • If other languages are used much, standards of English will drop. • Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

10. Research Questions/ Areas of Interest • A – Native Speaker (vs. Non-Native Speaker) Recruitment. • B – L1 (Arabic) Use in the Classroom (Teacher & Students). • C – English Medium (Other Subjects). • D – Cultural Dissemination.*

11. Methodology – Mixed MethodsTashakkori & Teddlie (2003) • a) 5-Point Likert Scale Questionnaire. • b) Written Responses. • c) Interview-Main Recruiter/ Director. • d) Documentation (?)

12. Analysis • Basic Descriptive Statistics (means etc.) • Independent Samples T-Test to Identify Areas of Interest/ Disparity – Indications Only – No Hypothesis • But…Highlighted Areas to be More Closely (& Qualitatively) Analysed.

13. Groups/ Pairings • Relevant M.A. vs. No (or irrelevant) M.A. • Arabic Speaker vs. Non-Arabic Speaker. • L2 Ability vs. No L2 Ability. • 10 years plus experience vs. Less than 10. • 10 years plus experience with Arabic speaking students vs. Less than 10.

14. Findings – NS vs. NNS. • A) Arabic speakers were more positive towards the recruitment of English/ Arabic speakers. • *But not Arabic/ English speakers? • B) L2 speakers favoured employing faculty with L2 ability. • C) L2 speakers favoured employing well qualified staff regardless of L1.

15. Findings – English Medium. • Primarily in favour of English medium, but… • A) Faculty with an M.A. qualification. • B) Faculty who have 10 years or more Mid-east/ Arabic specific experience. • C) Faculty who can speak Arabic… • …were all less convinced of the case for English medium studies across the board.

16. Findings – English Only Classrooms. • Faculty with 10 or more years of teaching Arabic speakers and faculty who speak Arabic were… • A) …more tolerant of the teacher using some Arabic. • B) …more resistant to English only classrooms. • C) …in favour of bilingual dictionaries. • Faculty who speak another L2 were… • A) …also in favour of bilingual dictionaries. • However, no real differences occurred over the question of student use of Arabic?

17. Conclusions (tentative). • 1) More experience of Arabic speakers and local contexts, can lead to greater acceptance of the role of NNS teachers, the L1 as an aid to L2 learning and the utility of bilingual dictionaries. Similarly such teachers are seemingly more sceptical about the need for an English medium education in general terms (*)….One size does not fit all! • 2) Likewise teachers who speak Arabic are more accepting of the above factors. • 3) As are those more highly qualified staff. • 4) NS bias remains throughout, as the preferred bilingual appears to be a native English speaker with Arabic ability, not vice versa…cultural bias? • 5) Anomalies, such as the Arabic speaking faculty appearing unconcerned about English threatening Arabic/ Arabic speaking identity, may have more complex explanations.

18. *English Medium? • Many faculty were aware that studying scientific and technological subjects in an L2 is a considerable task. However, they often stated other reasons why our students should study English: • “The students will be more marketable, and thus successful, the higher their level of English is.” • “Saudi students need English and benefit from a ‘western’ mindset – at least, that is the perception of major employers such as ARAMCO. No one forces the students to be here, if they wish to isolate themselves culturally from the western world, they are free to do so. There are inducements to do otherwise, however, and globalisation is a fact. You can’t buck the markets.” • “Many students wish to study English to be in a position to convey their Arab culture to other nationalities through the medium of English. Therefore, the global spread of the English language can only be seen as a good thing.”

19. Interview with Director. • “It (the institution) was set up as a university of science and technology and it was also set up as an English medium university, which has a certain prestige, and it’s in competition with the U.A.E. and other Gulf countries, and because the students coming out of here will go into international companies which will be English medium and they’re also expected to go overseas and study through the medium of English. So for these reasons it makes sense.”

20. So…? • Professionalize – Profession not industry. Teachers/ educators not just instructors. • Serious/ realistic qualifications. • Should lead to (we hope) less discriminatory recruitment policies. • Serious consideration of why we are teaching English? Is it to study other subjects in English, or for diverse communication purposes? • The role of L1 in L2 learning (methods, materials and dictionaries etc.) • Can we be quite so sanguine about cultural, discursive and other influences? • Finally, have I just talked myself out of a job?

21. Last Word • “…awareness of the fact that most ESL/EFL today relates to NNS populations requiring English for their internal purposes, or for dealing with other NNS populations, without the presence or intervention of native speakers.” • Kachru, B. B. (Ed.) (1992). The Other Tongue: English Across cultures • (Second Edition). Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

22. Thanks for Listening ! • Questions & Comments Please… • pmclaren@hct.ac.ae