Beliefs about native-speaking teachers in grammar and pronunciation instruction: Views and voices from second language learners

Abstract

The predominance of Thai as a foreign language in Asia has significantly increased the prevalence of Standard Thai and the demand for native Thai-speaking teachers. As a result, universities in China, Japan, and South Korea have officially recruited native Thai lecturers to instruct their L2 learners using an authentic language. The students’ responses to native Thai lecturers, on the other hand, are not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate how learners with varying language backgrounds perceive the pronunciation and grammar instruction of native-speaking teachers. A total of 108 international students completed a questionnaire eliciting lecturers’ use of L1 in pronunciation and grammar instruction, and 12 participants shared their opinions in follow-up interviews. The results revealed that while all three groups valued instruction by native teachers, significant differences were discovered between the Chinese and the others. Japanese and Korean learners, in particular, had a more favorable attitude toward the various roles of native speaker teachers in grammar and pronunciation teaching than Chinese students did.