Volunteer English Teaching: Do I Have To Be A Native Speaker?

By Kate | Permalink | No Comments | April 26th, 2007 | Trackback

While having a very strong grasp of the language obviously helps, as a native speaking English teacher – I certainly don’t think it’s necessary to be a native speaker in order to make a positive contribution. Especially if you don’t speak the learner’s or learners’ language, you can provide them with a realistic situation where the actually need to use English to communicate – and this is exactly what many people need. There are obviously lots and lots of language teachers teaching languages other than their mother tongue. Training is essential, and I don’t mean to compare volunteer English teachers with no training to people with advanced degrees - but my point is that being a native speaker is not a requirement for teaching a language.

Non-native speakers are also at an advantage in that they quite likely have a much higher awareness of grammar – in the way students often learn it and expect to be taught – than the average native speaker. Different people learn and retain things in different ways, so this doesn’t mean every non-native speaker will be able to name tenses and explain mixed conditionals; neither will every native speaker! In any case, few learners are into in-depth grammar explanations.

Perhaps most importantly, non-native speakers of English will have first-hand experience of being learners of that language, and in this way can potentially relate to other learners. Many learners I speak with say they typically find it easier to communicate with other non-native speakers than with their native-speaking counterparts.

It may prove challenging to overcome people’s preconceived notions about this, but I think it’s completely reasonable for someone with a high level of English to teach it, given they have the interest and the will.

For more on volunteering to teach English, see my post on common questions.

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