Walking the Line: The Legacy of Martin Wolff on EFL in China

English Today ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-52
Author(s):  
Joel Heng Hartse
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
American English ◽  
Language Education ◽  
English Learning ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking Teachers ◽  
Education In China

In August of 2012, Martin Wolff, an American English teacher and former lawyer who made a name for himself writing about issues related to English language education in China, passed away in Taizou, China at the age of 65 (see Lau, 2013, for a remembrance). Mr. Wolff's name will be familiar to readers of English Today and to any observers of EFL in China who follow English-language commentary on issues including Chinglish, native English speaking teachers in China, and the difficulty of creating an ideal environment for English learning in EFL contexts.

Employing native-English-speaking teachers in China: Benefits, problems and solutions

English Today ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenhui Rao ◽  
Hua Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Primary Schools ◽  
English Language ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Chinese Higher Education ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Efl Teaching ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking Teachers

The beginning of this new century has witnessed two important events in English language education in China. The first is the expansion of English language education into the primary curriculum. In 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) required that primary schools located in cities and county seats start to offer English classes at Primary 3 from the autumn of 2001 and that the rest start to do so in the following year (MOE, 2001). The second is the increase of enrolment in various types of Chinese colleges and universities. For example, in 1999 the number of students enrolled in Chinese higher education was six million, but it rose to over 20 million in 2004 (Jin & Cortazzi, 2006). Such a rapid development of English language education has resulted in a number of difficulties and challenges for EFL teaching in China, but the most serious constraint comes from the lack of qualified teachers (Rao, 2010). To compensate for the shortage of English teachers, many Chinese schools are endeavoring to attract more native-English-speaking teachers (henceforth NESTs) to fill up EFL teaching vacancies. In 2006, for example, there were 150,000 foreign EFL teachers working in China (Jeon & Lee, 2006).

scholarly journals The Students’ Attitudes towards the NESTs versus NNESTs and their Impacts on the Students’ Motivations to Learn English Language at KAU

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Haneen Saad Al Muabdi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
English Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
King Abdulaziz University ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Native English Speaking Teachers ◽  
The Impact

Motivation is one of the crucial aspects of second language acquisition. Students’ motivation can be influenced by their teachers. The present study aims to investigate the impact of the two types of teachers on EFL learners’ motivations to learn English. These are NESTs (Native English-speaking teachers) and NNESTs (native English-speaking teachers). Hence, it examines learners’ attitudes and perceptions towards the two types of teachers. This study employed a mixed method by distributing a questionnaire contains quantitative and qualitative tools. It consists of twenty items of Likert scales and two open-ended questions. The present study subjects are 31 female students at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The results of the study demonstrate that learners have a positive attitude toward NESTs and NNESTs. Despite that, the tendency to learn with NNESTs is higher than NESTs. The findings also show that both types of teachers motivate students to learn English. Moreover, it suggests that the methodology and teachers’ personalities are more important than the teachers’ nativeness.

scholarly journals 'Real English' in Japan : team teachers' views on nativeness in language teaching

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Team Teaching ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Interview Research ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking

In Japan, English is often taught by teams composed of a local Japanese teacher of English (JTE) and a native English speaking assistant English teacher (AET). This form of team teaching is typically assumed to be beneficial as it provides the students with exposure to models of native English which they would otherwise not encounter. Research has found that students and JTEs approve of team teaching as it provides students with motivation to study a language that would otherwise have little relevance to their daily lives. Less research has been done to explore how team teaching affects the JTEs with regards to their feelings about their own skills as English language users. In this paper, based on interview research with JTEs, I argue that team teaching reinforces the dichotomy between native and non-native speakers to the detriment of both Japanese teachers and their students.

Language Teaching in New Zealand

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 189-202
Author(s):  
Grameme D. Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Education ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
British Colonization ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Almost All

Language teaching in New Zealand as it relates to the theme of this volume, the movement of people across national boundaries, has had two main directions. The first, arising from the nineteenth century British colonization of tribal Maori society with the subsequent ceding of the land to the British crown, focused on the language education of the indigenous Maori people primarily through the schooling of children. In the 1980's almost all Maoris speak English and a minority are actively bilingual. Language teaching in New Zealand as it relates to the theme of this volume, the movement of people across national boundaries, has had two main directions. The first, arising from the nineteenth century British colonization of tribal Maori society with the subsequent ceding of the land to the British crown, focused on the language education of the indigenous Maori people primarily through the schooling of children. In the 1980's almost all Maoris speak English and a minority are actively bilingual. The second direction, occurring particularly over the last decade or so, has focused on the English language education of immigrants speaking English as a second language and coming as adults or children to a largely English speaking country. This review deals particularly with these two major directions in language teaching and does not, therefore, cover the teaching of foreign languages such as French or German as academic subjects in New Zealand.

Negotiating teacher identity: Experiences of Black teachers of English in Korean ELT

English Today ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Hohsung Choe ◽  
Youngjoo Seo
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Identity ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Black Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Native English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking Teachers

Most recent research on teacher identity in the TESOL field has focused on how non-native English-speaking teachers (non-NESTs) view and position themselves vis-à-vis native English-speaking teachers (NESTs), and which factors influence their construction of their professional identities. However, the perceived native speaker/non-native speaker (NS–NNS) dichotomy greatly oversimplifies a complicated phenomenon by representing it as solely linguistic and disregarding sociocultural and political issues. Beyond the question of nativeness versus non-nativeness, race, ethnicity, nationality, and cultural identity have played key roles in how teachers position themselves within English language teaching (ELT). These other factors may be critical in how others judge the capability of a teacher of English and authenticity of his/her English.

Recontextualizing Immersion in the Chinese Context

2017 ◽  
pp. 177-190
Author(s):  
Tao Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Education ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Educational Program ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Chinese Context ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Education In China

Immersion and bilingual education have been key concepts in English language education policies and practices. Though discussions have been made on the theoretical and practical issues of bilingual education in China, there has been much disagreement between which model of bilingual education is suitable for the Chinese context, as well as which terminology to use. Drawing on interview, observation, and documentary data gathered during a three-year study of a public-funded foreign language school in Shenzhen, one of the most economically developed cities in China, this chapter is focused on the impact of a Sino-Canadian collaborative educational program on the teachers, students, and school leadership, and reports some preliminary findings and thoughts on related issues. The conclusion is that immersion and bilingual education in the Chinese educational context needs to be reconceptualized and reinterpreted.

scholarly journals ENGLISH WORDS PRODUCTION OF A FEMALE SYRIAN STUDENT OF AN ISLAMIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN INDONESIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Ayatiningsih Ayatiningsih
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
English Learning ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Third Language ◽  
New Words ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
English Speaking

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is of paramount importance in second or foreign language, in this case English, learning. Thus, it is necessary to figure out how a learner acquires English language in non-English speaking countries. This study was aimed at investigating how a female Syirian student living in Indonesia acquires English as her third language and how she enriches English vocabularies. This research was presented in qualitative approach. The participants were a Syrian female student, Louren Haidar, her parents, her friends and also her english teacher. To collect the data, observation, interview and documentation were conducted. The result of the study showed that Lauren acquired English mostly from classroom activities where her teachers played the biggest role. To enrich vocabularies Laured did some strategies such as Arabic-English translation, writing down the new words, and reading a lot. One of the hardest challenges she faced was pronuncing certain sounds in English such as /p/ and /b/, /v/ vs. /f/, /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ ch + j.

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