Nonnative-English-Speaking Teachers in the English Teaching Profession. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, 4646 40th Street NW, Washington, DC 20016. Tel: 800-276-9834 (Toll Free). For full text: http://www.cal.org/ericcll/DIGEST.

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Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC.

English (Second Language); Language Teachers; Language Variation; Professional Development; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning

In the field of English language teaching (ELT), a growing number of teachers are not native speakers of English. Some learned English as children; others learned it as adults. Some learned it prior to coming to the United States; others learned it after their arrival. Some studied English in formal academic settings; others learned it through informal immersion after arriving in this country. Some speak British, Australian, Indian, or other varieties of English; others speak Standard American English. For some, English is their third or fourth language; for others, it is the only language other than their mother tongue that they have learned. The strengths of these individuals as English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers are still somewhat unknown and are often underestimated by their colleagues and students. This digest describes the contributions that these educators can make to the ELT field, some of the challenges they face as teaching professionals, and ways in which these challenges are being addressed. (Contains 17 references.) (Author/VWL)

2003

ED470982