The Effect of Native and Nonnative English Language Teachers on Secondary Students’ Achievement in Speaking Skills

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of the native English language teachers in comparison with nonnative English language teachers on students’ achievement in speaking skills. The subjects of the study were six native English teachers (NESTs) and six non-native English teachers (NNESTs), and their 196 grade ten students in the Institute of Applied Technology in the UAE. The instrument of the study was a speaking test implemented at the end of term one of the academic year 2008/2009. The findings revealed that there was no significant difference among students’ overall speaking achievement test scores amongst 10th graders at (ά = 0.05) due to the native-ness of the teacher. However, the in depth analysis showed that there was a significance correlation between native-ness and pronunciation in favor of the NESTs and a significant correlation between accuracy and native-ness in favor of the NNESTs. (Keywords: Native English teacher, Speaking skill, Effective teacher, Intelligibility).