Does being taught by native English-speaking teachers promote improvement in speaking skill more?

Gülten Koşar

Abstract


It has been conceived that being taught by native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) leads to more improvement in speaking proficiency given the fact that English is their mother tongue. This paper aims to examine whether or not being taught by NESTs ends up with more achievement in adult EFL learners’ speaking skills. Experimental research design was used with an eye to scrutinizing if there was a statistically significant difference between the speaking scores of the participants in the experimental group and the ones got by the participants in the control group. The experimental group had proportionately more lessons conducted by NESTs as opposed to the control group taught predominantly by non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs). In eight weeks, marking the duration of the study, the participants submitted three speaking portfolios, took one speaking quiz and one end-ofcourse test (ECT). Participants’ scores on the quiz, the ECT and the speaking portfolios were analyzed via conducting independent samples t-test. The findings obtained from the analyses show that no statistically significant difference exists between the speaking scores of the experimental and control group on the ECT, scores on the speaking quiz, the first and second speaking portfolios while a statistically significant difference is observed between the participants’ scores on the third speaking portfolio. The results might arouse suspicion of the popular conception of learning to speak English better as a consequence of being taught by NESTs. 


Keywords


Adult EFL learners; NESTs; NNESTs; speaking skill; improvement in speaking skill

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References


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