A Comparative Study Of Oral English Classes Between Native English Speaking Teachers And Non-native English Speaking Teachers

Speaking is a skill which deserves as much attention as the other language skills, in both first and second languages. In order to improve spoken English teaching, China has been hiring native English speakers to teach English in China since the 1970s. In English Language Teaching (ELT), differences exist between native English speaking teachers and non-native English speaking teachers.This paper is a comparative study between oral English teaching classes that were taught respectively by a native English speaking teacher and a non-native English speaking teacher. Like other language skills teaching classes, oral English teaching also involves four basic factors: teaching material, teacher, teaching methodology and learner. Two classes, from Hubei University of Technology, each including 31 students, taught separately by a foreign teacher and a Chinese teacher, were chosen as subjects in this study. Two questionnaires and class observations were used as the measuring instruments of this study. One questionnaire was designed to investigate students'learning attitudes and oral English communicative strategies. The other was used to investigate teachers'evaluations regarding teaching materials. Teachers'roles and teaching methodologies were mainly investigated through class observations. Data obtained from the questionnaires was processed with SPSS13.0. Class observations were carefully listed and analyzed.The results of the comparative study indicated that students'learning attitudes and communicative strategies from a native English speaking teacher's class were more active and more effective than students'taught by a non-native English speaking teacher. However, both classes had similar levels of improvement in their overall speaking ability. Students'pronunciation, taught by the foreign teacher, was better than students taught by the Chinese teacher. But for both classes, students'ability in content description, use of grammar and language fluency were at a similar level. Results also indicated that the Chinese teacher paid a lot of attention to the learning of language knowledge, while the foreign teacher emphasized the training of students'language skills. Foreign teachers and Chinese teachers had different attitudes towards the teaching materials they are required to use.Based on the results, it is suggested that English educators should attach more importance to the quality and content of oral English teaching materials and the regulation of oral English testing. Oral English teachers should try to create a well-disciplined and pure English learning environment for the students. During class teaching, oral English teachers should use"gentle correction"to treat students'spoken English errors. Oral English teachers should give more writing assignments in the process of teaching spoken English. Considering the English level of students from non-key universities and the shortage of native English speaking teachers, the administration in non-key universities should arrange for more oral English classes to be taught by non-native English speaking teachers. Chinese teachers and foreign teachers should strengthen communication and cooperation in the teaching of oral English so that they can effectively improve the level of oral English teaching in China.