Comparing Students’ Preferences for Native and Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers in Mainstream Schooling and Private Tutoring

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Interrogating Ideologies in Language Education: From Native Speakerism to Raciolinguistic Ideology (Table 10)

Abstract

This study compares students’ preferences for Native English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs) versus Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) within mainstream schooling and private tutoring contexts. Through focus-group interviews with 64 Hong Kong secondary school students, this study reveals that while students show a balanced preference in mainstream schooling—valuing NESTs for immersion benefits and NNESTs for ease of communication—there is a distinct preference for NNESTs in English private tutoring (EPT). This preference is driven by NNESTs’ familiarity with local exam requirements and their ability to teach exam skills Chinese. This study highlights the important but neglected role of EPT in language education and its implications to the longstanding dichotomy between students’ preferences for NESTs and NNESTs in exam-oriented contexts.

Author

• Kevin Yung, The Education University of Hong Kong