By: Zahra Zamani
From my first attempts in Canada to be an English Teacher (what I used to be in my country), I understood that there is a long journey in front of me to be admitted to the club. Assuming that you are from a non-native English-speaking country, native speakers (especially native English speaker teachers (NEST)) become sensitive to check your pronunciation and your knowledge of English language to be sure that you are put in the right position. The questions that I always see in their eyes are “does she make a good teacher of English language while she has not learned it naturally and cannot speak it with a perfect correct accent? Do not we have enough native speakers who can teach the course?”
This view/ attitude can be easily seen in the teaching market demands when you see that majority of EFL and ESL teaching job sites require applicants to be native speakers. Then, you will confront this fact that being a non-native English speaker teacher (NNEST) can be a serious disadvantage for you despite your many years of studies in ESL programs at accredited universities and your valuable teaching practices. This happens while just being a native English speaker (NES) gives a great opportunity to some other people to be English teachers all around the world without having enough knowledge and experience about teaching.
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