Paste your text in here…Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
With the economic expansion and globalization, the English teaching scale getting enlarged continuously in China. Teacher demands and expectations today are far greater than they have ever been. Therefore, various public and private schools in China including colleges, universities, the middle schools, primary schools and kindergartens have hired native English speaker teachers to teach students English. However, the vast majority of English learners in China study with Chinese English teachers who are non-native English speakers. (2010).
When native speakers English teacher and Chinese English teacher who have a different cultural background teaching English as a foreign language in the Chinese classroom context, many perplexities could be arise and sometimes lead to completely different teaching effects since it is difference between eastern and western countries in the origins of the teaching practice rationality. These could be due to the different teaching experiences of teachers, different social positions of teachers and students, the differences in the relevance of the curriculum, the differences in profiles of cognitive abilities between the populations of the different cultural, or the differences in expected teacher and student interaction of the native speaker English teacher and Chinese English teacher. Those often manifests in the teaching practice, such as different teaching responsibility and different teaching philosophy. As a result, understanding the effects of cultural differences is one of the key to achieving success for English teaching for both native English speaker teachers and Chinese English teachers in China. It is of great significance in theoretic to study the issue of native English speaker teachers and Chinese English teachers in China from the point of view of cultural differences
From the above-mentioned research needs, this paper would begin with reviewing the related literature studies to understand what have been known and find out what have not been explored about native English speaker teachers and Chinese English teachers, and the following chapters in this paper will address on the two main sections, culture difference studies and studies about Native English teacher and Chinese English teacher in terms of TESL studies. In addition, question as followed will be addressed.
How do cultural differences influence native English speaker teachers and Chinese English teachers in terms of English teaching as a foreign language in China?
The NESTs have their strengths in English proficiency; while the N-NESTs have their strengths in teaching techniques, and the understanding of learners' L1 and cultural background.
Chapter Two
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.The cultural difference between Chinese and the west
A Hofstede's model of cultural differences
As the most famous and convincible model related to cultural differences, it would be unwise not to refer to it when cultural differences become the topic, Being quite practical, the Hofstede index has become very popular among people who, most of the time ,may turn to the index for aid when they confront culture collision and try to find out the main sources that lead to those culture collision(Hofstede,50-55).
According to the research of Hofstede Geert, based on the data of over one hundred thousand employees of IBM's subsidiaries in forty different countries, he fund that: cultural differences influence on people's behavior and value system in a certain group of members. Hofstede look at the different cultural from the viewpoint of five dimensions as follows: 'Power distance'; 'Uncertainty Avoidance'; 'Individualism and Collectivism'; 'Masculinity and Femininity' and 'Long-term and Short-term Orientation'.
From the research result of Hofstede ,there are staggering differences between China and the west countries' culture in terms of 'Power Distance', 'Individualism and Collectivism' and 'Long-term and Short-term Orientation'. 'power Distance 'refer to the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally . China is the country that holds higher 'Power Distance' than the western countries, the people in the high 'Power Distance 'will accept the distance of power distribution naturally because the hierarchical system may more stricter than others who in a lower 'Power Distance' culture country which means people in their community are regard themselves as equal as others who may be have more power than themselves. For the 'Individualism and Collectivism' dimension ;China be consisted as a 'Collectivism', Chinese people stress more on the personal relationship and loyalty to the community which they belong to which due to the influence of traditional Confucian culture . On the contrary, Western countries' individualism is higher than China, people in the 'individualism' culture have less tight relationship between each other and care more about self and self-independence. China is in the 'Long Term Orientation' culture context, long-term Orientation is the extent to which members of a society adapt themselves to reach a desirable future; USA and Britain are in the 'Short Term Orientation 'context, which is the extent to which members of a society take their guidance from the past and try to fulfill their present needs and desires.
In 1986, Hofstede developed this theory in the teaching and learning areal, he claim that the 'Uncertainty Avoidance 'in the teaching and learning. Both China and USA are considered as the 'Weak Uncertainty' context, Students want good discussions, Teachers may say 'I don't know', Emotions should be controlled anywhere, Tolerance for differences in class, teachers involve parents. but for the different of power distance, the teachers who come from a large power distance as China holds a teacher-centered education system, teachers initiate all communication in class, and teachers are gurus who transfer personal wisdom; but for the context of the small power distance culture, teacher holds a student-centered education system, teacher could treat students as equals, students maybe initiate some communication in class and teachers are experts who transfer impersonal truths.
Secondly, in the collectivist culture, the purpose of education is learning how to do, students'' individual initiatives discouraged, they only speak up in class when sanctioned associate and associate according to in-group. Diplomas provide entry to higher-status group is sometimes bought. But for the individualist, Purpose of education is learning how to learn; Students' individual initiatives encouraged; Students are expected to speak up in class when they need or want to; Students associate according to interests; Diplomas increase economic worth and/or self-respect.
The differences of the teaching and learning of the 'long-term orientation' culture and 'Short-term Orientation' is that for the 'long-term orientation' culture ,Students attribute success to effort and failure to lack of effort; Studying hard is norm; High performance at mathematics; Talent for applied, concrete sciences; Children learn to save; On the other hand, the 'Short-term Orientation' ;Students attribute both success and failure to luck and occult forces; Enjoyment is norm; Low performance at Mathematics; Talent for theoretical, abstract sciences; Children learn to spend.( Hofstede,1986)
2.2 Native English teacher and Non-native English teacher in terms of TESL studies
In 2008, Based on the research on many literatures, Lucie Moussu and Enric Llurda conducted the researches about Native English teacher and Non-native English teacher in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the research shows that there are a limited articles of this issue before 1990,because in the linguistic theory has traditionally considered that native speakers are the only reliable source of linguistic data (Chomsky 1965). Linguists see the native speaker are idealized for the second language acquisition literature, the stereotypical representation of non-native speaker be viewed as a defective communicator, limited by an underdeveloped communicative competence' (Firth and Wagner 1997: 285). Under such a background, a lot of disputes have arisen in applied linguistics circle on the English teacher and Non-native English teachers' identities, ranging from teachers' perceptions of their own identity to students 'views and aspects of teacher education. Based on the existing hypotheses Non-native English teachers are often accorded lower professional status than native English-speaking in some context, This has even spawned the issues of discrimination teachers' (Mahboob 2010). But after analyses the change of the research direction of native English speaking teacher and the Non-native English speakers under the continuous movement environment from a World English perspective , some researchers put the native English speaking teacher and the Non-native English speakers'debate in context. And given the arguments against the existence of the categorization of native English speaking teacher and the Non-native English speakers, they considered these two categories fail to reflect the real conditions and level of command of a language by a given speaker, and are sometimes misleading in suggesting that one group of speakers has a superior capacity to communicate efficiently and intelligibly than the other'. (Moussu & Llurda,2008)'for the discussion of the advantages and disadvantages both of the native English speaking teacher and the Non-native English speakers have been controvert by the researchers and they provide much enlightenment and reference to English as a foreign language teaching in the world so far.
2.3 Native English teacher and Chinese English teacher in terms of TESL studies in China
For the researchers in this field of China, they are divided into students 'views and teachers' perspective. Barbara Burnaby and Yilin Sun 's(1989) study showed that 24 Chinese (People's Republic of China) teachers of English at the tertiary level who they gave questionnaires and interviewed believed that the teaching method should be adjust measures to Chinese student's different communication needs ,the students who have a purpose to study English for study abroad apply to the Communicative Language Teaching method. And they changed their teaching practices to accommodate the students. Besides, Chinese English teacher noted their limitations with respect to the sociolinguistic and strategic competence in English. Finally, they believe that there are various constraints on implementing Western language-teaching methods in the EFL context in China.
However, Hsien-Chung Liao & Cheng-Cheng Yang'2012'did a comparative studies of cultures and teaching practices differences between native English-speaking teachers and Taiwanese senior high school students ,after took an interview and non-participant classroom observation three native English-speaking teachers in Taichung city and six Taiwanese senior high school students ,the results showed that the native speaker teachers lack of diversified cultures, not dealing with the complicated classroom situations. Students were accustomed to Grammar Translation Method instead of the Communicative Language Teaching. The idea is worth noting is the scarcity of understanding diversified cultures and large classes were major difficulties for both teachers and students.
Cheung and Braine (2007) studied the attitudes and opinions of university students in Hong Kong towards NSs and NNSs, the strengths and weaknesses of the teachers from the perspective of students, and the capability of these teachers to motivate students. Cheung used questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations, and post-classroom interviews to collect her data. The questionnaire was distributed to 420 undergraduates from a variety of majors at seven universities. Ten students and twenty-two university English teachers from different universities were interviewed. The results showed that language proficiency and fluency, as well as cultural knowledge, were especially appreciated with native-speaking teachers. In the case of NNS teachers, their ability to empathize with students, a shared cultural background, and their stricter expectations were seen as strengths. As with previous studies, participants agreed that professional skills (such as knowledge of their subject, preparation, being able to make lessons interesting and fun and to motivate students, etc.) were more essential than language skills.
In order to investigate the Influence of Chinese Undergraduates' Developing View of World Englishes on Their Preference for a Native or Nonnative Speaker Teacher of English,Jing Jin (2008) conducted a research project with subjects from eight different universities in the People's Republic of China. The findings show that Chinese student's preference for a Chinese English teacher rather than a native speaker teacher of English because of the influences of their positive attitude towards EngIish learning and China English in the current changed of World Englishes background.
Chapter Three
CRITIQUE
This critical review identifies a number of literature gaps and proposes future directions.
First of all, According to the Hofstede's model of cultural differences in learning and teaching, we can see that the causal relationship directly or indirectly related to the cultural differences and language teaching practice. Culture effect on the individual's behavior, connecting and analyzing the cultural differences and language teaching practice together, we could get some inspiration for the English as a foreign language teaching. At the same time, the cultural differences could come with different teaching practice. Hofstede's cultural dimensions give us a generally ideas that the Chinese and western countries' people have different cultural backgrounds, the traditional Chinese culture values can be summed up as follows: firstly,'Collectivism 'which emphasizes the harmony relationship between people ; secondly,'large power distance' as performance hierarchy, humility and courtesy; the last point is 'long-term Orientation' by the influence of traditional Confucianism, as opposed to the Chinese culture, western countries' culture dimensions based on the concepts of democracy, independence and equality, performance as 'small power distance', 'individualism' and 'Short-term Orientation', this theory provides theory basis of analyzing and the different characteristics of Chinese English teacher and native English speaker teacher. The results of these investigations as reported clearly show that Chinese English teacher as the Non-native speaker English teacher compared with the native speaker teachers, they have a different teaching practice performance in the English classroom, including the choosing of the teaching theory for students' different learning needs between the Communicative Language Teaching and the Traditional Grammar Translation Method.( Burnaby&Sun,1989).on the other hand, in the research of Liao & Yang(2012) also showed that native speaker teachers in Taiwan high school have different teaching contents, teaching methods, and teaching competence for the teaching although them did not satisfy students .in sum, these researches give us the answer to our research question as well: These different cultural concepts influence teachers and students' relationship, the interaction between teachers and students, the teaching theories they used in the teaching practices of the teacher, such as the teacher-centered education system or the student-centered education system, etc.
However, it also gives us a critical thinking that stereotyped impression could be the existing problem in these analyses both in the teacher and students' perspective. According to Burnaby and Sun for the Chinese teachers' views of western Language teaching research, it shows that Chinese English teacher considered the context informs paradigms for the teaching theory. They also accept and using the western language teaching in the Chinese classroom's context. Besides, Moussu, L. and E. Llurda suggested that in the global English language teaching context, the role of native speaker and non-native speaker teacher are different from before. Although these two researches haven't directly related to the relationship of culture differences and teaching practices, but it shows that native speaker and non-native speaker teachers' developing cooperation and complementary relationship could be influence their teaching practice in the current global English language teaching context.
So from this point of view, we can get the rational explanation for the different teaching practice of the Chinese English teachers and native speaker teacher come from the influence of the cultural differences between Chinese and western countries' culture. But the influence is not absolute; we must much more careful about stereotypes facts of the culture, also we need notice that nowadays the change of World Englishes effect the English as a foreign language teaching in the world as mentioned in the research of Chinese undergraduates' developing view of World Englishes on their preference for a native or nonnative speaker teacher of English of Jing Jin.
Next, even though the article of Moussu, L. and E. Llurda is not only referring to the Chinese case, it also gives us some idea about the advantages and disadvantages of native speaker teachers and non-native speaker teachers, including Chines English teacher .We find that the advantages of non-native speaker teachers in the aspect of teaching practice such as their ability to empathize with students, a shared cultural background were seen as strengths, a large extent due to the non-native speaker teacher don't have culture difference with their students. There are similar findings in the research of Cheung and Braine as well. On the other hand, because of the culture difference between the native teacher and the students, it bring the problems to the teaching practice of native speaker teachers, as the results showed that American teachers lack of diversified cultures, cannot dealing with the complicated classroom situations in the research of Liao & Yang'2012'. However, these two articles haven't point out this deep culture reason: the Cultural similarities and the Cultural differences influence the interaction between the students with the native speaker teacher and non-native speaker teachers.
In addition, from the research literature results above which focus on the English teaching in the China, which related to the relationship between the cultural differences and language teaching practice is very limited. We should pay more attention to cultural differences in the English as a foreign language teaching. That is not just because the process of second language learning also is a process of culture learning. But also teaching students English in the cultural context is a good way to help the students to improve the cultural awareness and communication skills.
Therefore, for the reason as mentioned the interwoven and interactive relationship between culture and language teaching, it requires both native teachers and non-native teachers should put the culture factors into the teaching practice for improving the teaching effect effectively and realize the teaching goal better.
Future research questions could be generated from the above literature gaps.
References
Moussu, L. and E. Llurda. (2008). 'Non-native English-speaking English language teachers: history and research'. Language Teaching 41/3: 315'48.
Paikeday, T. (1985). The Native Speaker is Dead! Toronto, Canada: Paikeday Publishing Inc.
Phillipson, R.(1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford,UK: Oxford University Press.
Cheung, Y. L. & G. Braine (2007). The attitudes of university students towards non-native speakers English teachers in Hong Kong. RELC Journal 38.3, 257'277.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.