Someone else’s shoes

Research shows that language students believe there are different benefits to having a native-speaking teacher or a non-native-speaking teacher, with both bringing their own qualities to the language classroom. Presumably, one of the things that makes non-native-speaking teachers so effective is that they know what it is like to be in their students’ shoes. This comes from having the shared experience of acquiring a second language in general and of struggling to acquire English in particular.

Trying to understand what one’s students are going through is essential to being a good teacher, but this can be a purely intellectual endeavor for many native-speaking teachers. They have never had the opportunity to learn English as a second language; their experience of acquiring most lexical forms and vocabulary probably predates conscious awareness. On the other hand, non-native-speaking teachers can likely remember struggling to master specific aspects of English which might seem self-evident to the native speaker; non-native-speaking teachers are intimately aware of what linguistic features are challenging and how they overcame the challenge.

On top of this, non-native-speaking teachers share the experience of being a language learner with their students. They are familiar with the psychological trials, tribulations, and triumphs that go along with acquiring a second language, since they have recently gone through—or are currently going through—it themselves. In this regard, however, native-English-speaking teachers need not be at a disadvantage. While native English speakers can never feel what it is like to struggle with English as a second or a foreign language, they can certainly become a learner of another language. Sharing this experience with their students will build empathy, creating a powerful emotional connection.

Even teachers who already have experience of learning a second language at home or at school can benefit from embarking on a new learning journey, as memories are notoriously unreliable and need to be refreshed from time to time. Learning a second (or third, or fourth) language can help teachers to understand what challenges their students are facing and what learning strategies work. Teachers can test their favorite second language theories out on themselves. It can even help them experience feelings their students can relate to which, in turn, can be discussed as part of an engaging communicative activity.

One of the difficulties of this profession is that teachers rarely have the opportunity to observe and to learn from other practitioners, since they spend most of their working hours in their own classrooms. Taking language classes as a student is a great professional development opportunity in that it provides a chance to observe and evaluate what other teachers do. Do this teacher’s methods conform to best practices? What brings about the most improvement? What stimulates the students’ attention? What is dull or frustrating? Even teachers who choose to learn a language independently can still get a feel for the learning experience and can evaluate what types of materials, textbooks, storybooks, instructional videos, and so on, are the most effective.

Of course, every learner is unique, and some of the things that are challenging for one might be easy for others, and vice versa. A learning journey will vary based on myriad individual factors like motivation, willingness to communicate, attitudes to the language, foreign language anxiety, etc. As such, it is important not to assume that everything one experiences will be applicable to all; however, there are other factors that are generalizable to many foreign language students, and there are others that appear to be universal.

Given all the benefits outlined above, it would seem negligent for a native-speaking language teacher not to start learning a new language, but with over 6000 languages spoken in the world today, how does one decide which to choose? First of all, there are practical considerations. A great many of these languages will hardly be viable options due to the lack of resources available to the learner. Unless one happens to have direct access to a speaker of one of the (unfortunately many) almost-extinct languages, these might prove unrealistic; finding learning materials, language partners, or classes might prove to be an insurmountable challenge. However, there remain about 100 languages with over 10 million native speakers, so that still leaves an embarrassment of choices. Here are some other things to consider when choosing a language.

First of all, think of the time commitment. As every language teacher knows, the process of acquiring a language is time-consuming. To achieve any sort of proficiency will take hundreds or thousands of hours. Of course, this will be time well spent given the professional development advantages derived from the process, but why not choose a language that can offer peripheral benefits as well? Is this particular language likely to come in useful in future trips abroad, or in communicating with friends or colleagues, or in appreciating the literature or cinema of a culture that holds a special interest to the learner?

For teachers working abroad, the most obvious choice would be to learn the language of the host country. The benefits of being able to communicate easily on a day-to-day basis are myriad, and there certainly are advantages to being able to occasionally revert to one’s student’s native language to explain things quickly and easily in the classroom; however, it is worth mentioning that choosing this option will result in a second-language context for the language-learning teacher, as opposed to the foreign-language environment experienced by the local students. This means there will be differences such as degree of integrative and instrumental motivation, or the input-richness of the extra-classroom environment. Such factors should be kept in mind when projecting one’s own experience upon that of one’s students.

Since the ultimate goal is to build empathy and understanding by creating a mutual experience, it might be advisable to choose a language that will replicate one’s students’ experience as accurately as possible. As such, student proficiency level is worth consideration. If one teaches primarily high-level students, trying to improve a previously acquired language will provide a more similar learning journey; whereas starting a language from scratch would be more suitable for those teaching beginners. In an EFL context where all students have the same native language, one might consider the relative difficulty of the target language. English is comparatively easy to acquire for speakers of Germanic or Romance languages and vice versa, so teachers of native German speakers, for example, might consider sticking to something closely related to English, to give themselves an accurate idea of the level of difficulty experienced by their students. Conversely, teachers working with native Mandarin or Arabic speakers might try something more challenging.

Finally, many teachers doubtless have a particular aspect of their teaching program that they want to explore more closely. For example, if teachers want to evaluate the effects of an extensive reading program on early language development, sticking to languages that have a phonetic alphabet will furbish them with a more comparable experience than if they choose a language which involves having to memorize thousands of pictograph-based characters before beginning to read for pleasure.

Obviously, any serious native-speaking teaching professional knows that being a good English teacher is about more than just being proficient in the language; it is also about understanding student needs, and there is no better way to know what language students need than by becoming one.