Humanising Language Teaching
Year 1; Issue 8; December 1999

"The Paradox Of A Non-Native EFL Teacher"

Małgorzata Szwaj, English Unlimited, Poland

I would like to consider briefly the complexity and intricacy of the role of somebody who is a non-native teacher of English. My interest in this topic stems not only from the fact that I belong to this group but also from a desire to join in a discussion that would put

the assumptions underlying language teacher education projects in some perspective.

As a human being and as a teacher of English, a non-native teacher is caught up in a paradox - or a number of them.

This is hardly a surprise especially in the field of education. That -'Life is for Learning '- seems true for many people regardless of their profession. If it is a universal truth , then it is a must for a non-native teacher who has to juggle two roles and identities at the same time - that of a learner and that of a teacher - traditionally associated with authority and setting the standards of competence. It is a fact of critical importance for their subsequent careers. A level of linguistic competence is for many teachers one of the most important sources of their professional credibility and the bedrock of their professional competence. For some people, becoming a teacher of a subject they are studying can be compared to becoming a teenage parent. Seen from the outside, you step into the role of authority, while in fact, you may be only one step ahead of your more advanced pupils. There is a fine line between insecurity and taking on a power role ; this , in addition to other reasons may account for the fact that the tradition of power distance between teachers and students is still going strong in some classrooms .

At the other end of the scale there are teachers who make the best of their 'learner' role and develop throughout their careers. They do this by observing and reflecting , which in turn leads to further awareness and a reflective cycle in one's linguistic and cultural competence. And while experiencing the process they may discover that:

A non-native teacher embarks on a delicate and emotional quest for linguistic and professional credibility , a journey which he/she makes into the realm of the competence of a mythical creature called - 'a native speaker'. One may start the journey with a ( false ) belief that the world of a native speaker is just across the border, at the other end of the familiar road described so interestingly in coursebooks and supplementary language learning materials. Soon however, one is lost in the maze of English discourse and its prosodic and sociocultural clues. Those who are known to have come back speak of chasing ( in vain ) the shadow of a native speaker and seeing the summit of competence, alas, ' forever beyond the second horizon'. ( 1 )

Poor souls !. They should have known better - having taught from coursebooks that do not go beyond the factual information about the country whose language they teach.

At the same time, they should draw some comfort in knowing that : ' The correlation between the semantic structure of English and the cultures of its native speakers are(...) is much more complex and diverse than are the correlations between language and culture in the vast majority of human societies. ( 2 )

Anyone who has been chasing shadows is unlikely to forget it. While trying to recover from the experience, he/she may further discover :

Learning inevitably involves change. Aspiring to linguistic and sociocultural competence in a foreign language involves the act of re-defining one's self-image and identity. If language is a reflection of the culture that uses it, then learning a language is inseparable from learning alternatives to our native systems of values and codes of behaviour. This may be a lesson for all concerned and especially those who concentrate on teaching 'form' and pay little attention to 'culture'.

To know that foreign language teaching implies awareness of different sociocultural values does not necessarily bring about understanding or acceptance. Non-native teachers who have travelled that far are facing the last dilemma - whether , after all, to venture into the world of 'The Other' or - play it safe.

One way or another, they are likely to reflect on:

Invisible frontiers are difficult to cross. You can cross them by ' walking in someone's shoes ' - someone from across the border. The question of how close we can get to the reality of another culture in order to feel a part of its language and society is also a question of how much we want to learn about ourselves from this encounter.

It may be the key paradox that by trying to achieve the linguistic competence in a foreign language , non-native teachers may understand and appreciate better their own cultural identities which are bound to be enriched by the whole experience.

Therefore, it is not surprising that : ' Cross cultural teaching is most effective when teachers have been through the experience first. In other words, the best cross-cultural teacher is he/she who has personally experienced a cultural shock.' ( 3 )

Finally...teacher's credibility , to a large extent , relies on the quality of being genuine. It may be ' the ability to acquire another person's language and understand someone else's culture while retaining one's own [that] is one aspect of a more general ability to mediate between several languages and cultures, called cross-cultural, intercultural or multicultural communication. ' ( 1 )

We live in different worlds and realities with invisible frontiers defined by the borders of personal experience. I hope some thoughts from this article may strike a chord with someone out there - in the real world...