NES or NNES

We constantly come across job advertisements seeking native English language teachers. This is quite upsetting for the ELT world. English language has become an international language and is learned all over the world. There are more NNES than NES in the world and this difference is growing bigger day by day. So demanding only native speakers is unrealistic and ridiculous for the modern world.  

But let’s see what the advantages of being a native English language teacher are. Firstly, they are the carriers of the language and they know almost everything about it. Moreover, they have native accent, and they know the culture. Whereas Non Native English language teachers have acquired the language later on in their lives and they might have their own accents, different than natives. By recruiting Native speakers the employers think they will raise the prestige of their organization as students might demand native speakers of English. This is the obvious side of the ice.

Talking about the advantages of being a NES we must also talk about the advantages of being NNES. So what are they? Learning the language themselves, the NNES have a valuable experience of learning the target language. They can share this knowledge with their students and help them on their learning process. They also try to teach the language the way they once learned as well as adding the pedagogy and methodology they gained in teacher training courses. This is the point the job seekers don’t pay attention.