Haunting Native Speakerism? Students’ Perceptions toward Native Speaking English Teachers

Abstract

This paper intends to explore how Taiwanese university students perceive their native-speaking English teachers (NESTs). Mutual expectations between the NESTs and students are also investigated. Collected data include questionnaires from 107 students and interviews with three NESTs and 19 students who have filled out the questionnaire. The result shows that students expect more encouragement and interaction with the NESTs, and more relaxed activities with fewer assignments and tests. A third of the students expect NEST with a standard accent, while a quarter do not care about accent at all. The NESTs reveal their dissatisfaction toward the students’ passiveness and lack of responsiveness. While students expect their NESTs to be interactive, they themselves seem to give the NESTs an impression of unwillingness to participate. The discussion centers on this dilemma and offers some suggestions for English teachers. Keywords: