Students' Perceptions Towards The Qualities of Non Native English Speaker Teachers in English Language Teaching Field

Abstract

Besides Native English Speaker Teachers (NESTs), Non-Native English Speaker Teachers (NNESTs) are also believed to have the qualities needed for a successful teaching. In th is study, quantitative data from 100 students of English Teacher Education Program, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga were collected to investigate students' perceptions towards the qualities of NNESTs in English Language Teaching (ELT) field. Fi fty students in their third year of university and another 50 from the fourth year were chosen as they were believed to be more aware of the qualities of NNESTs with the length of time they have spent being taught by NNESTs in that faculty. The questionnaires used are in form of close-ended questionnaires. There are 16 items and categorized into six qualities of NNESTs according to Medyges (1992). The results demonstrate how most of the students perceived NNESTs positively because of their awareness of all the six qualities. The students especially have positive perceptions towards NNESTs for their insights that they get from their own experience as former English learners, their wide knowledge of internal mechanism of the language, and their ability to make use of Indonesian (L1) to convey meaning in the classroom.