The Attitudes of Students toward Native and Nonnative English Teachers

This book reports the findings of an investigation into the attitudes of university students in Hong Kong towards native and nonnative teachers of English at six Hong Kong universities, in terms of the teachers' pedagogy and knowledge of applied linguistics. The data was collected over twelve months, by means of questionnaire surveys, interviews, field notes, classroom observations, and post-classroom-observation interviews. The findings show that most students preferred to study with the native teachers of English. Others did not show any preference towards the native teachers of English or the nonnative teachers of English. Nevertheless, no students expressed that they would prefer to have the nonnative teachers of English. The results of this study provide two important pedagogical implications: Students should be made aware of the Hong Kong accented English, and the importance of intelligibility of English. The book is addressed to graduate students and researchers in education and social science, particularly those who are interested in the issue of native and nonnative teachers of English.