Employing native English-speaking teachers for English courses: stakeholders’ perceptions

Tóm tắt

Native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) are needed to teach English at many universities in Vietnam because they are commonly regarded as models for communication in English. Yet, does this rationale correspond with the views of students who enrolled in high-quality programmes and administrators (departmental and functional leaders who are administering the programmes)? This article reports on research carried out with university students and leaders at University A (A pseudonym was used for the researched institution) in Vietnam, exploring stakeholders’ (specifically students and institutional leaders) perceptions of employing NESTs to teach English speaking skills. Data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire with 65 students and in-depth interviews with 40 students (those who participated in the interviews also responded to the questionnaire) and interviews with four leaders. Data were thematically analysed through an inductive approach. The major factors that could help NESTs meet students’ expectations were their teaching methods and the extent to which they could interact with students together with communicative competence and cultural knowledge. Students viewed NESTs as models for communicating in English but also had difficulty in understanding these teachers when there were differences in culture and language uses. It was indicated by leaders that NESTs are employed as a motivating and diversifying source of teaching staff and marketing communication figures for the institution. The findings suggest that to meet students’ expectations, it is necessary that NESTs improve their teaching methods, receive training and be under a screening procedure of recruitment and quality assurance. Employing NESTs is a trend in Vietnam, but quality procedures need to be established for assuring that these NESTs comply with the quality expectation at the institution.

Từ khóa: Native English-speaking teachers, communication in English, speaking skills

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