The Effect of Native Speaker Teachers of English on the Attitudes and Achievement of Learners

Abstract

Teachers are considered to be one of the most crucial elements affecting the success of students learning a foreign language in non-English speaking countries. Native speakers of English were recruited as language teachers all over the non-English speaking world only because of their competency in the language for a long time. But later, it was admitted that being adept in a language doesn’t necessarily make anyone a successful language teacher. Skill in teaching is also very important in native speakers of English as language teachers.  Attitude and motivation are proved to be the determinants of success in EFL learning. Native speaker teachers may also have an effect on the attitudes of learners as representatives of their culture and society. And they may be more advantageous in doing that because they are also more competent in that culture compared to nonnative speakers. The study investigated the effect of native speaker teachers of English on the attitudes and success of EFL learners in Turkish setting.  The results confirm that the learners who are exposed to native speaker teachers of English have more positive attitudes towards target language community and are more successful in English lessons compared to those who are not exposed to any native speaker teachers of English. The results also verify that the attitude of EFL learners towards the target community correlates significantly with their success in language learning.

Keywords

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Öz

İngilizce konuşulmayan ülkelerde İngilizce öğrenen çocukların başarılarında öğretmen çok önemli unsurlardan birisidir. Uzun zamandan beri İngilizcenin anadil olmadığı ülkelerde anadili İngilizce olan öğretmenler sadece İngiliz dilindeki yeterlilikleri yüzünden büyük işi imkanları bulmuştur. Fakat sonraları, dilde iyi olmanın, herkesi iyi öğretmen yapmadığı kabul edilmiştir. Anadili İngilizce olan öğretmenlerin öğretimdeki becerileri de çok önemlidir. Yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğreniminde tutum ve motivasyon önemli belirleyicilerdir. Anadili İngilizce olan öğretmenler toplumlarının ve kültürlerinin de temsilcileri oldukları için öğrencilerin tutum ve motivasyonlarında etkili olabilirler. Bu onlar için anadili İngilizce olmayan öğretmenlere kıyasla daha fazla avantaj sağlayabilir. Bu çalışma anadili İngilizce olan EFL öğretmenlerinin İngilizce'yi Türkiye'de yabancı dil olarak öğrenen öğrenciler üzerindeki etkilerini araştırmayı hedeflemektedir. Sonuçlar anadili İngilizce olan dil öğretmenlerinden ders alan öğrencilerin, derslerine hiç anadili İngilizce olan bir dil öğretmeni girmeyen öğrencilerden İngilizce dili ve toplumuna karşı daha pozitif tutumlara sahibi olduğunu ve İngilizce derslerin de daha başarılı olduklarını göstermektedir. Sonuçlar aynı zamanda yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğrenen öğrencilerin tutumlarıyla başarıları arasındaki ilişkiyi de ortaya koymaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Anadili İngilizce olan EFL öğretmenleri, Öğrenci tutumları vemotivasyonları, tutum ve başarı arasındaki ilişkiler

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