CHALLENGING ATTITUDES TOWARDS NON-NATIVE ENGLISH-SPEAKER TEACHERS

MATESOL students at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE) studying a course in Leadership and Management in ELT in the short Summer Semester 2014 engaged Discussion Board work on Blackboard to reduce the need for travel in the Fasting month, Ramadan and the punishing heat and humidity of July in the UAE.

The topic concerning prejudicial attitudes towards non-native English-speaker teachers was chosen by the students as all had encountered negative mindsets in the course of their professional lives. Dealing with the attitudes as issues for leadership and management allowed the teachers to share experiences and study resources that provided informed commentary on the debate that surrounds this topic.

The students viewed the Video Arts Managing Problem People Series which illustrate methods that effect positive change. The key factor is that change is two-pronged; in order to bring about change in another you have to change. They read three professional papers which examine the issue; one from Costa Rica, one from the United States and the other from Thailand and they emailed a question to Professor Jack Richards through his website interface asking his views on insights that non-native teachers bring to the ELT profession.

After a week of online discussion and consolidation of ideas and views from the various information sources they convened as a class and worked through a three stage resolution process to develop strategies that could challenge and modify the stereotypes. The paper will report this process and the outcomes realized by the students.