Dichotomy of Native and Non-Native English Speakers in Japan

[teachermela]

Hello everyone! I am Carmela, a student from the Philippines. I'm currently working on a research paper focusing on the Dichotomy of Native and Non-Native English Speakers in Japan.


In line with this, I'm looking for Japanese people who are learning the English language as well as English teachers who are either native or non-native speakers but are working/have worked in Japan to participate in my study. I assure you all information will be treated with utmost confidentiality and will be used solely for academic purposes. Thank you so much!

Important note: Online English teachers are also qualified to participate in the study.

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JAPANESE STUDENTS
1. Are you learning English language? For how long have you been studying English?
2. Are you enrolled in a language center in Japan? or self-taught?
3. When it comes to learning, do you prefer a teacher who is Native English Speaker (people from US, UK, Australia, NZ) to teach you? Why or why not?
4. What is your perception on teachers who are Non-Native English speakers?
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS
1. Are you a native/ non-native English speaker?
2. How long have you been teaching English? How long have you been teaching in Japan?
3. What are your observations on the perception of Japanese students when it comes to their teacher being a NES? How about NNES?
4. Is there apparent discrimination or division existing between these "classfication" of teachers?
thank you for all those who will answer! Help me pass this semester.

 

[Buntaro]

Carmela,

I think you need to restructure your research a little bit.

First, I would distinguish the two types of English teachers in Japan differently than how you distinguish them. I would suggest:

JPWTEIJ's — Japanese People Who Teach English In Japan

and

FPWTEIJ's — Foreign People Who Teach English In Japan (A large number of FPWTEIJ's in Japan are native speakers of English, but there is also a smattering of non-native English speakers who speak English quite well and do just as good a job at being FPWTEIJ's as native-English speaking FPWTEIJ's.)

Second, it is important to include in your research that English students in Japan learn English from JPWTEIJ's and FPWTEIJ's for completely different reasons. Japanese people learn English from JPWTEIJ's mainly in order to pass "Japanglish" tests. They usually do NOT learn English from JPWTEIJ's in order to improve their English speaking skills. In contrast, English students in Japan learn English from FPWTEIJ's usually in order to improve their English speaking skills. It is extremely rare to see English students in Japan doing test-prep with FPWTEIJ's, or learning English conversation from JPWTEIJ's. Believe it or not, there are a number of JPWTEIJ's who cannot speak English!

(I would add that test-prep for tests like IELTS and TOFEL is sometimes taught by FPWTEIJ's, but these are tests for English not Japanglish.)

Please consider these aspects as you pursue your research.

 

[teachermela]

Thank you, Buntaro for your reply. I'll make sure to take note of this.