Abstract
Native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) have played an important role in China’s foreign language teaching. Every university in China now has native English teachers teaching various English courses to students of different levels. There are, however, few systematic studies on the differences between Non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) and NESTs in China. This paper tries to identify the differences between these two groups of teachers in terms of attitude, means of instruction and teaching results as perceived by the students.

Key words: teaching attitudes, instruction, evaluation, teaching results

Introduction
Since China adopted a policy of reform and opened up to the outside world in 1978, universities have been permitted to hire foreign teachers to teach foreign languages. In recent years, especially after China’s entry into the WTO and its successful bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, there has been an unprecedented increase in English learning. Along with this surge in interest for English language learning is the great increase in the demand for native speakers. Foreign teachers that were once only found on university campuses now appear in some junior high schools, primary schools and kindergartens in developed cities. Another big demand for foreign teachers is from private English training schools that spring up like mushrooms in virtually every city in China. They offer spoken English classes to pupils from kindergartens and primary schools, Reading, Writing and other ESP (English for Specific Purposes) classes to adults.

Compared with those working in private schools, foreign teachers who teach in a Chinese institution of higher learning have to undergo a series of examinations and interviews. Once they finish the procedures, they sign a contract with their future employer in which detailed duties, requirements, and welfare conditions are specified. Native English teachers teach various English courses to both English majors and non-English majors. The courses they teach range from English Pronunciation, Spoken English, Reading and Writing for beginners to Linguistics, Literature and Advanced Writing for advanced learners of higher grade English majors and non-English majors. They work together with Chinese teachers of English. With China’s economy further expanding, universities are able to hire more foreign teachers. This is especially the case in Southern China which was the first to open up to the outside world and has been enjoying favorable policies since 1980, for example, the first economic zones which were established in Guangdong Province.

Both NNESTs and NESTs have their advantages and disadvantages. Medgyes (1994) provide six positive characteristics of NNESTs. They 1) provide a good learner model to their students, 2) are able to teach language strategy very effectively, 3) are able to provide more information about the language to their students, 4) understand the difficulties and needs of the students, 5) are able to anticipate and predict language difficulties, and 6) can (in EFL) settings) use the students’ native language to their advantage. One of the obvious disadvantages is that majority of NNESTs, as Medgyes (1992) remarks, even the best nonnative speakers of English, will never reach “native competence” in spite of all their efforts. They might be able to come quite close to it but will always be “halted by a glass wall”, a kind of invisible “plateau” where their language competence will stop improving.

NESTs also enjoy several advantages. First of all, their authentic English attracts students’ attention. Secondly, their lively, flexible and unpredictable teaching methods differ greatly from those of Chinese teachers. Thirdly, a lively class environment in which students are encouraged to speak and express themselves has drawn more and more students into their classes (Li & Meng, 2005). At the same time, a few problems do exist. First of all, foreign teachers’ knowledge of their Chinese students’ learning habits and their needs is very limited (Li, 2005). This was even more obvious several years ago, when English teaching in China was largely test-oriented. Test training for different national exams for English and non-English majors have dominated English classrooms. Secondly, students who have registered the courses given by foreign teachers complain that their teachers would choose material at will. The textbooks (normally textbooks compiled by Chinese authors) assigned by the designated department were left untouched. They prefer to use their own materials, pictures, movies, and other props. Finally, foreign teachers are flexible in evaluating students’ performance. Sometimes, the evaluation has no fixed criteria (Li, 2005; Wu, Shao & Wang, 2005)

There is no doubt that competent NESTs share many of the traits that a competent NNEST has. This paper tries to identify the general differences between NESTs as one group and NNESTs as another that teach the same group of students in terms of attitude, means of instruction and evaluation and teaching results perceived by the students.

Research questions
Based on the previous findings, this study proposes to investigate whether:
1) There is any difference between native teachers of English and their Chinese counterparts in terms of teaching attitudes.

1. Foreign teachers are more flexible in giving instructions and use more media in classrooms.
2. Students believe they learn more from foreign teachers’ classes.

Methods
65 (53 girls and 12 boys) third year college students majoring in English language and literature from English department of a key national university in South China took part in the survey. They were asked to comment on the six teachers of native English speakers who have taught them various courses in the past five semesters. The courses include such basic ones as Speaking and Listening, Pronunciation in the first two semesters and some business related practical English courses in the third, fourth and fifth semesters. There were 14 Chinese teachers. Three of the Chinese teachers taught non-English courses, such as College Chinese, Computer Basics and were thus excluded from the survey. The eleven Chinese teachers of English taught Comprehensive English, Extensive Reading, Writing, Practical English, Translation, English Literature and a number of elective courses.

Groups	Gender Ratio ( F/M)	Average age	Degrees	Origin
6 NESTs	3:3	48.2	Bachelors (3) Masters ( 3 )	2 Australians 2 Americans 2 British
11 NNESTs	7:4	38.6	Bachelors ( 2) Masters (9 )	11 Chinese

The study was done in two phases. In the first phase, a questionnaire was administered with the purpose of finding the specific differences between the two groups of teachers. A questionnaire of 20 items was administered during the break time. Each of the 20 items was followed by three choices. N﹥C (Foreign teachers are doing better than their Chinese counterparts); C﹥N (Chinese teachers are doing better than their foreign counterparts); N= C (The groups are doing more or less the same). Teaching attitude refers to the teacher's prevailing tendency to respond favorably or unfavorably to teaching and students. The Teaching Attitude component contained seven statements. Means of instruction was defined as the way the teacher delivered the course material, including the use of media, activities organized and interaction with the students. This component was also judged on the basis of seven statements. Another component investigated how teachers evaluated their students’ performance. This component contained two statements. One statement asked what method the teachers used to evaluate their students’ performance. The other statement measured the fairness of the teacher’s evaluation as perceived by the students. The last portion of the survey investigated the effectiveness of the teaching. This component, referred to later as ‘Teaching result’, contained four statements. It measures the students’ belief on how much they have benefited from the courses given by the two groups of teachers, their interest development towards the subject taught and their growth in the language skills in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The second phase is an interview with the students from three levels of English proficiency---low level (the average score below 75 points in a 100 scale), mid-level (between 75 and 85 points) and top level (above 85 points). Three students from the top and low levels and six from the mid-level are randomly chosen to represent the whole class. They are asked to tell the researchers where they feel the teachers should improve to better meet their demands. The interview was conducted in the fifth week of the fifth semester (One semester lasts for 18 weeks.)

Findings
1. Findings from the questionnaire.

Table 1
General findings in the four categories:

Categories	Results
Teaching attitude	N﹥C ( 12.6% )	N = C ( 68.3%  ) ＊＊	N﹤C ( 19.1% )
Means of instruction	N﹥C ( 61% ) ＊＊	N = C ( 20.7%  )	N﹤C (18.3%)
Evaluation	N﹥C ( 58.5%  ) ＊	N = C ( 30.2%  )	N﹤C ( 11.3% )
Teaching result	N﹥C ( 13.8%  )	N = C ( 13.8%  )	N﹤C ( 73.4% ) ＊＊＊

Significance Levels: ＊＊＊ very significant, ＊＊fairly significant, ＊significant

In terms of attitude towards students and the course, more than two thirds of the students believe there is no significant difference between the two groups of teachers. More than 61 percent of the students from the class believe foreign teachers try different means to deliver text material more often than their Chinese counterparts. When it comes to evaluation of students’ achievement, nearly 60 percent of the students report that the foreign teachers are more flexible than the Chinese teachers. The biggest difference is found in teaching results perceived by the students. Nearly three-fourths (73.4 percent) of the students believe that they learn more from courses taught by the Chinese teachers.
Table 2

Differences found in the individual items between the two groups.

Categories	Subcategories	Results
Attitude	4. Constantly learn to enrich oneself.	C﹥N (59.4%)＊
	5. Create friendly class environment		N﹥C (64.3 %)＊＊
Instruction	8. Try different means to deliver text materials.		N﹥C (61.6 %)＊＊
	9. Make more use of modern media.	C﹥N (66.5% )＊＊
	11. Fully prepared for lectures.	C﹥N (55.2 %)＊
	12. Actively interact with students.		N﹥C ( 59.4% ) ＊
Evaluation	15. Flexible evaluation of students’ achievement.		N﹥C (58.5%) ＊
Results	17. I learn a lot of things from the course.	C﹥N (73.4%)＊＊＊
	18. Students learn to think for themselves.		N﹥C(70.2% ) ＊＊＊

Table 2 shows some of the differences in individual subcategories. Within the category of teaching attitude, foreign teachers and Chinese teachers of English differ in two. Students believe their Chinese teachers are more likely than the foreign teachers to learn new skills and knowledge to meet the new challenges in educational technology. Consistent with the general belief, near two-thirds of the students (except those who are very poor at spoken English) surveyed believe the foreign teachers’ class is friendlier and they have less stress in class compared with Chinese teachers’ classes. The biggest differences occur in class instruction. More than 60 percent of the students believe that their foreign teachers are more flexible in delivering course materials. Foreign teachers interact more with their students than their Chinese colleagues in class. However, a large proportion of the students find that their Chinese teachers make more use of modern media, including the Internet, Powerpoint, flash, etc. More than half of the students also believe that their Chinese teachers spend more time than their foreign teachers preparing their course material and are better organized in class. Near 60 percent of the students believe their foreign teachers are flexible in assessing students achievement though both groups are believed equally fair in the process. The biggest difference between the two groups exists in the outcome of the teaching perceived by the students. Nearly three-fourths of the students believe that they learn more from the courses given by their Chinese teachers of English. However, a similar amount of students believe their foreign teachers more often encourage them to think independently.

2. Findings from the interview
In the interview, the students at the top level enjoy foreign teachers’ classes more than the low level students who enjoy Chinese teachers’ class more. The latter reported that they felt nervous in foreign teachers’ classes because of their inability to express themselves properly. In Chinese teachers’ classes they could use Chinese when they were not able to find the English equivalents. The three groups all demand more face-to-face interaction between the teachers of both groups and the students after class. Although emails and telephones are popular, students have difficulty explaining themselves in English when they run into problems in doing homework and reviewing newly learned texts.

Discussion
In terms of attitude towards students and teaching, there is no significant difference found between the two groups. The students perceive both groups as hardworking and competent. The teachers were patient when presented with the students’ problems. Students’ inquiries sent by emails and telephone messages were replied to in a timely fashion. Homework was carefully corrected and graded.

As far as the means of instruction is concerned, foreign teachers’ approaches to text materials are more varied. But the Chinese teachers of English use considerably more media, PPT and the Internet in class instruction. The foreign teachers use more conventional media to assist teaching, e.g. recorder, CD/DVD players, movies and radio programs.

To facilitate self-accessed learning, English textbooks published in China are now equipped with electronic versions complete with movie clips, pictures and illustrations. One criterion for the annual teaching assessment puts a lot of weight on multi-media use in instruction. Before each new semester, Chinese teachers are required to submit the multi-media version of their lesson plans. There is no such requirement for native speakers of English.

Evaluation is something that students concern most. The students believe that their foreign teachers are more flexible than the Chinese teachers in evaluating the students’ achievement. Both groups are believed fair in evaluating students’ performance and achievement. The courses given by Chinese teachers are mostly required courses with standard written test papers and grading criteria from the test paper databank. While the courses given by foreign teachers, for example, Oral English, Movie Watching, Business Negotiation courses, are either elective courses or new courses, teachers have more freedom to decide on the means of evaluating the students’ performance. With regard to the teaching results, the students believe they benefit more from courses taught by the Chinese teachers. Some courses, especially Comprehensive English and Business English are test-oriented. Progress is easily seen and felt when they take the national TEM-4/8 (Test for English Majors) and BEC (Business English Certificate). The progress they have made in such courses as Oral English, Writing, Literature, Media English Reading given by native speakers of English are rather slow to experience.

Conclusions

Educationalists and policy makers have long reached consensus that qualified native teachers of English with proper educational background and training are an important part of EFL teaching in China. They are live role models for Chinese students in acquiring authentic spoken and written English. At the same time, as Canagarajah (1999) has claimed, NESTs will be better teachers in an EFL context because of their unique cultural knowledge.

Modern telecommunication means do not seem to draw the teachers and the students any closer. Students, especially those poor achievers, should get more help from the teachers. More face-to-face interactions will help eliminate their anxiety in expressing themselves.

As is found in this study, competent English teachers, trained and educated in China or English speaking countries, share many of the same expertise, personality traits, strengths as well as weaknesses. The Chinese teachers of English should learn from the native speakers in creating a student-friendly classroom environment and using different ways to evaluate their students’ performance. The former may also focus more on developing students’ ability to think independently instead of conveying factual knowledge only. The native speakers should know more about the Chinese students’ needs and learn to make full use of multi-media facility in the classrooms. As NNESTs and NESTs complement each other with their strength and weaknesses (Matsuda & Matsuda, 2001), the two groups of teachers who teach the same class may communicate more and exchange their ideas on how to teach the same group of students more effectively.

References

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Matsuda, P. K., & Matsuda, A. (2001). Autonomy and collaboration in teacher education: Journal sharing among native and nonnative English-speaking teachers. CATESOL Journal, 13(1), 109-121.

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