Chinese language - Native vs. Non-Native Mandarin Teachers!! -

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Strawberries513 -

I need to get peoples opinions on this if you dont mind (its for my final research paper for a
class). If some people would give their opinions on the following questions please:

1. Would you, as a Mandarin learner, prefer a native or a non-native speaker as a teacher?

2.What do you think are the pro's and con's of Native teachers?

3. What do you think are the pro's and con's of Non-native teachers?

4. How would you say the number of native teachers compares to the number of non-native teachers?

-Thats all. Thanks so much to whoever helps me with this!!



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Shadowdh -

1. Would you, as a Mandarin learner, prefer a native or a non-native speaker as a teacher?

Depends... for listening and speaking a native speaker is essential, but for grammar explanations
then a teacher who is fluent in Chinese but also fluent in the students language (or at least a
language the student is fluent in) is as good more often than not as the subtleties of grammar and
language can be explained with more detail...

2.What do you think are the pro's and con's of Native teachers?

Great for listening practice and correcting the use of the language being learned.
sometimes the nuances/subtleties of the target language are not clear therefore explanation can be
unclear. Also you can have a teacher who does not speak the language clearly enough or well enough
to be able to understand questions or explain language use very well...

3. What do you think are the pro's and con's of Non-native teachers?

Can be very good for learning the grammar and all that goes with that...
Pronunciation and nuances in the language being learned can be off.

4. How would you say the number of native speakers compares to the number of non-native speakers?

Not sure what you mean here... if its ratios then for listening and speaking you would need a
native speaker, for grammar and reading then a non native is ok...

If you mean how many native as opposed to non native then I wouldnt have a clue... but here in the
UK Native speakers are common...










griz326 -

#1 - Native speaker - I don't want to speak Chinese with a southern drawl.

#2 - Presuming teacher competence - native speakers understand the connotative and denotative
meanings associated with words. If they ennunciate and pronounce correctly the learners have a
good start. If there is a problem with the native speaker as a teacher, I would expect it to hinge
on being able to clearly explain the nuances of a language. The native speaker may not speak the
learner's language with great precision and the learners are unlikely to know enough of the
language they are learning to get the subtlities.

#3 - I consider a non-native speakers to be an absolute last resort. While I have met a number of
native Chinese speakers who speak English with proper pronunciation, precise meaning and without
accent, they are way beyond 3 standard deviations. If the teacher cannot say the word correctly,
the students never will. If the teacher does not understand the meaning of the word, the students
never will. They may, however, know grammar better than a native speaker whose perfect grammar may
be intuitive.

#4 - N/A




I am truly looking forward to teaching English in China next year. :-)










Xiao Kui -

I've studied for quite awhile under native teachers, and never had one who was good at explaining
grammatical and usage nuances or could supply the English equivalents of certain sentence
structures, words, and expressions. I think a non-native teacher has the advantage of already
having been through the process of learning Chinese as a foreign language and has a lot more
insight into the learning process as a non-native speaker.

I also think anyone dedicated enough to have pursued teaching Chinese to foreigners as a degree
has probably reached a certain level of accuracy as far as pronunciation is concerned.
I think it's still important to have plenty of exposure to native speakers to help one's
pronunciation and tingli, but for learning things such as grammar, sentence structure, and
especially usage, I think I would prefer a non-native speaker.










atitarev -



Quote:

I've studied for quite awhile under native teachers, and never had one who was good at explaining
grammatical and usage nuances or the equivalents of certain sentence structures, words, and
expressions. I think a non-native teacher has the advantage of already having been through the
process of learning Chinese as a foreign language and has a lot more insight into the learning
process as a non-native speaker.

I agree with this 100%. I actually find native speakers are good for practising Chinese with, but
no offence, not often good for teaching

1) Chinese teachers are often afraid to lose face and it's difficult to discuss with them things,
if it contradicts their opinion.
2) Chinese teachers are often not familiar with the English terminology used to describe their
language or they confuse the terms. So if you want examples, yes native speakers can give more but
when they explain why you say so, you want a professional linguist/teacher.

For the same reason we do prefer foreign language textbooks in our own language, don't we?

I know good Western schools offer grammar taught by non-native and conversation by native speakers.

I would vote for native speakers, if you already have good grounding and have good resources, know
how to use them and your sole goal is conversation practice.


I knew excellent non-native language teachers (a different language), which I wouldn't change for
natives, they can be not 100% fluent or even have some pronunciation flaws but be the best
teachers, I hope it makes sense to someone. To explain my thought: being able to teach, not being
able to speak, is the main criterion for a good teacher (to a certain extent, of course).










eeraser -

I am in America, so I am not exposed to Chinese 24/7, but here is my take on your questions:

1. Would you, as a Mandarin learner, prefer a native or a non-native speaker as a teacher?
A: I prefer a native teacher.

2. What do you think are the pro's and con's of Native teachers?
A: I have found native teachers enunciate better. When it is a non-native speaker, I feel like
they are just repeating sounds, it doesn’t come across naturally. Although there are times when
my teacher cannot say the English word properly and the whole class gets confused.

3. What do you think are the pro's and con's of Non-native teachers?
A: They know where I am coming from since they had to learn the language after childhood as well.

4. How would you say the number of native teachers compares to the number of non-native teachers?
A: I have only seen non-native teachers in videos, all of mine have been native.



Hope this helps, good luck!










leosmith -



Quote:

1. Would you, as a Mandarin learner, prefer a native or a non-native speaker as a teacher?

Native speaker for conversation, self-learning for all other aspects.


Quote:

2.What do you think are the pro's and con's of Native teachers?

pro's-conversation, con's-all other aspects


Quote:

3. What do you think are the pro's and con's of Non-native teachers?

pro's-none; con's-all aspects (that is, for me they compare negatively against natives for
conversation and against self study for all other aspects)


Quote:

4. How would you say the number of native teachers compares to the number of non-native teachers?

There seem to be much more natives over all, mostly in China, trying to teach in China or
increasingly trying to teach using internet. But that's just the feeling I get from google
searches, etc. I don't know the facts.










yonglin -

Native speaker all the way. Actually, I have never had a non-native Chinese teacher, but I have
had plenty of non-native English teachers, under which I learnt a lot less than I did once I got a
native English teacher.

When you're an absolute beginner (of any language, but Chinese in particular), you need to learn
to recognise tones and how to produce sounds accurately, and it's extremely important that you're
exposed only to standard (or "perfect") Chinese not to develop bad habits. I guess some non-native
speakers might be able to do this, but they are kind of rare.

Once you get more advanced, you just don't have anything to benefit from obtaining explanations in
a language other than that in which you're learning, since it would just distract you from
thinking in the target language.

I think the main problem with this thread is that there seems to be an assumption that native
Chinese teachers are less qualified than their non-native counterparts. Obviously, a trained
non-native teacher might be better than a non-trained native teacher in some respects, but such a
comparison is obviously quite pointless. In general, I am very impressed with the teaching skills
of most Chinese teachers of a Chinese as a foreign language (which usually have a university
degree in the subject - far more than we could say about native English teachers teaching English
in China for example...).

Personally, I never had the experience with professional native teachers being unwilling to talk
about particular things because they find it inappropriate. I've had things like 黄电影 listed
on vocabulary sheets. I also particularly remember an occassion when a few of us crazy foreigners
in my beginner's class discussed gay relationships during a break (in English). We then explained
to the teacher what we were talking about, and although she seemed a bit uncomfortable and opposed
to the whole thing, she seemed quite enthusiastic to tell us the Chinese words and the like. I
once asked another of my teachers why she had chosen to do the whole teaching Chinese to
foreigners-thing. Although the main reason seemed to be jumping on the bandwagon (it was the most
popular career choice in her class of Chinese majors) it was also because of curiousity about
other cultures and a willingness to learn more about people with different backgrounds and customs.

If you're unwilling to learn the names of a few grammatical terms in the language you are
learning, that's your problem and you should not blame your teacher for it. Actually, I think it's
quite constructed and artificial to insist on using the grammatical terminology of your own
language to describe another, since there will obviously be a lot of concepts which simply don't
compare. For instance, the grammatical term "complement" will probably be unfamiliar to native
English speakers which have no experience in Chinese, and I don't see why calling it by this name
rather than 补语 would be any better or more intuitive.

I was only able to develop decently fluent and idiomatic English having let go of non-native
teachers. Personally, I think it's quite dangerous always to look for the equivalent way of
expressing something in your mother tongue (or a better language) when acquiring a new language:
the sooner you can abandon the "translation" stage, the sooner you'll get fluent.










-葛亚辉- -

I think I've mentioned my views on this elsewhere, but I'll do so again. Also, I should note that
I've only been taking Chinese for two years at this point



Quote:

1. Would you, as a Mandarin learner, prefer a native or a non-native speaker as a teacher?

Native speaker.



Quote:

2.What do you think are the pro's and con's of Native teachers?

Pros: Flawless pronunciation and fluency, understanding of culture and ability to incorporate that
into lessons (for instance, knowing the backstories of 成语 really helps me remember them...not
that non-native speakers can't learn that, but they're definitely less likely to know it as well)
Cons: Potentially, inability to explain things well in english (although really, after the first
year that doesn't matter much...at least, my teachers this past year spoke basically no english in
class)



Quote:

3. What do you think are the pro's and con's of Non-native teachers?

Pros: Since they learned it too, they can help with study techniques and potentially draw
connections between your native langauge and Chinese that a native teacher might not see.
Cons: Non-native pronunciation (assuming it isn't 大山), less complete understanding of culture
and its connection to language, less complete understanding of idiomatic expressions, and
differences in Chinese between what "sounds good" and what doesn't.



Quote:

4. How would you say the number of native teachers compares to the number of non-native teachers?

Well, I'd say the vast majority are native. I've had 6 native teachers, plus a couple native TAs,
etc, and this summer I'm studying in China so I can only assume all my teachers there will be
native speakers as well...I've never had, or even seen, a non-native Chinese teacher. Certainly,
my school doesn't have them.










flameproof -



Quote:

1. Would you, as a Mandarin learner, prefer a native or a non-native speaker as a teacher?

Non-native, preferably English native speaker. They are FAR better in explaining. Chinese are
hopeless when it comes to explaining anything.

Saying that, just note that MOST chinese are not native Mandarin speakers. Most speak it as 2nd
language.




Quote:

2.What do you think are the pro's and con's of Native teachers?

Chinese have usually no background on their own language (normal for all native speakers). Their
pronunciation can vary a lot. As a starter you have no way to judge their knowledge, and frankly,
there are too many "teachers" out there which have no idea what they are doing.



Quote:

3. What do you think are the pro's and con's of Non-native teachers?

No con as long as you are below their level. A CFL speaker knows the difficulties you have much
better.



Quote:

4. How would you say the number of native teachers compares to the number of non-native teachers?

What is a native speaker? Mandarin is natively only spoken somewhere northwest.












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