
NEST=Native English Speaking Teacher & NNEST = Non-Native
Previously working as a Director of Studies at my current school, one of the jobs I assigned myself was to teach the foreign teachers Turkish. This was a very interesting experience for me and I think it gave me some good insights into being a non-NEST.
First, a bit on my level of Turkish: my level of Turkish is highly conversational, especially associated with daily life. I can understand a wide variety of accents ranging from Bulgarian Turkish to Azeri. I also can read academic texts and modern literature without too much trouble. On the weak side are my writing skills (I write like I speak), formal speaking, and talking about generally taboo subjects here like politics or religion.
With all that in mind, I’d say I feel comfortable teaching up to an Intermediate level of Turkish.
My first day of class: I was pretty nervous. I had a lot of doubts. How could I transfer my method of teaching English to Turkish? Would I catch the students’ mistakes as naturally? Would I teach them the wrong thing? Etc.
My first day of teaching Turkish went extremely well. I was dealing with a mixed class of mostly near absolute beginners and one pre-intermediate. I found that I was able to apply the same exact teaching methodology I use for English. Get the students talking to each other and simply help them out with whatever they are weak in. Then, do some formal noticing on the board of specific features of the language. Everything was of course done in Turkish.
Throughout my experience teaching Turkish there were definitely snags. Sometimes I didn’t know a word like “Singaporean” or “oyster” and sometimes I wasn’t 100% sure that the way I said things was correct, but this was easily overcome. If we didn’t know a word, we simply looked it up in an online dictionary or if we weren’t sure on a phrase we’d either google it or ask one of the Turkish staff. These occasions were rare enough that they didn’t interrupt the class much. It actually helped my Turkish out as well
On the other hand, it was easy for me to hear mistakes and often times I’d even be able to add different ways to say things or useful idioms into the classes, which surprised me.
Many NNESTs I’ve talked to often have this feeling of inferiority when it comes to their English language skills vs. that of a NEST. In my experience teaching Turkish, I found that the benefits of a non-native far outweigh the disadvantages. Sure, I might not always have the answer, but I don’t always have the answer in English either. Did I make mistakes? Of course, but, again, I sometimes make mistakes when teaching English as well. These were always corrected on the break or in the next class.
Maybe some of the Turkish I use isn’t 100% correct, but I know for a fact that it’s understandable as I never have people misunderstand me or look at me confusedly. The key is effective communication and that, I am confident, I’m able to teach. Also, most NNEST teachers I know have a far higher level of English than my level of Turkish, so if I can do it, certainly others can.
Advantages I had as a non-native:
1) I knew where students would have difficulties. I knew what had been hard for me to learn coming from English as an L1 and I was able to explain or present things in a way that quickly made sense to the students. I knew what to spend more time on, where to focus, where to gloss over. It was a huge advantage.
2) I knew why they were making certain translational errors and could easily point out what they were doing wrong and how/why it should be “x” instead.
3) We spoke 100% in Turkish and learned through doing. All their previous teachers had tried to teach primarily grammar rules, all while speaking English.
4) I knew what would interest the students and I could relate to the culture. In effect, I could easily localize the content.
5) I taught them language they would need and use. They found the lesson immediately applicable. Instead of focusing on “what you do in your free time” (a question no one has ever asked me in Turkey), we worked on things like going to a restaurant or introducing yourself.
6) I knew their L1 so we could often have discussions in English about the direction of the class, complicated or confusing language points, and as a way of connecting during breaks.
7) I knew the grammar better than most Turks and I could explain it in a way that made sense to English speakers. Turks level of their own grammar is about as good as most English speakers knowledge of theirs. They very often can’t tell you why something is the way it is, provide alternative examples, provide exceptions to rules, or explain things in a way oriented to English learners. The way Turks understand their own grammar is quite a bit different from the way English learners perceive it, so my background as an English L1 speaker helped us relate a lot.
In the end, I found that the students learned very quickly. We only met once a week and there would always be definite improvements from week to week.
So my advice to any non-native language teacher is that you should be confident in your teaching ability and realize that you have a lot of advantages over native speakers.
What do you think? Are there any NNESTs out there that feel less than confident in their teaching? How do you deal with that? Are there any other NESTs out there who have taught in their L2? What was your experience like?
Related Posts:
Lexis, Speaking, and the Non-Native Teacher by Hugh Dellar
Can You Be a Good Language Teacher if You’re Not Fluent on Teacher Talk