Fiona Copland, Aston University, UKSue Garton, Aston University, UKSteve Mann, University of Warwick, UK

Learning, working and communicating on NEST schemes. 

Investigating NEST schemes around the world: supporting NEST/local collaborative

practices

http://www.aston.ac.uk/lss/research/research-centres/language-education-research/research-activities/nest-schemes-project/

Background

Fiona – VSO, Nigeria; Expatriate English Language Teachers Scheme, Hong Kong; Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Steve - Expatriate English Language Teachers Scheme, Hong Kong; Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan

A sense of history (partly our history)

In 1913, Hong Kong’s Education Department (ED) commissioned its agents in London to advertise for the recruitment of three Assistant Mistresses to teach in Hong Kong schools.

1987, Hong Kong’s Education Department (ED) and British Council employed 80 Expatriate English Language Teachers in an ‘Expatriate English Language Teachers Pilot Scheme’

What do we make of this history

• Little empirical data (and what exists is difficult to collect, problematic in nature and highly contested):

From the final report of the scheme:

• EELTs appear to be more successful earlier (i.e. in Secondary 1 or 2)

• ‘Younger pupils are generally more favourable than older pupils’ (Davies et al 1989).

Current context

Many governments still seek out and employ NESTs (native English speaking teachers) to participate in learning and teaching in state schools, colleges and universities.

This is despite a growing literature that casts doubt on the desirability of such schemes and criticisms of them.

What is a ‘native speaker’ teacher?

Both a highly contested term (e.g. Leung, Harris & Rampton,1997;Kumaravadivelu, 2012; Jenkins, 2013) and taken for granted term:

‘if I had an Australian Dollar for every time a talk here used the words ‘native speaker’ uncritically, I could pay for my plane fare home’

(Myers, BAALmail list, 14.08.2014)

Research design

1. Observations of 5 NEST lessons (Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan)

2. Interviews with 5 observed teachers (see above)

3. Interviews with 10 NESTs and 5 local teachers (Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Brunei, Vietnam).

Research outputs

‘Audit’ Document Training materials (10)Report

(All available early 2015 from British Council website).

Book (Autumn 2015)

http://www.aston.ac.uk/lss/research/research-centres/language-education-research/research-activities/nest-schemes-project/

Preliminary findings

1. NEST schemes alive and kicking! (e.g. KET, NET, JET, CfBT, VSO, Peace Corps, Fulbright, CUSO, TET).

2. Different teaching models according to scheme (team teaching, quasi team teaching, class teacher, curriculum design).

3. Different levels of qualification required of NEST depending on scheme (e.g. JET degree required; NET teaching qualification and usually experience required).

Preliminary findings

4. Relationship between teachers is crucial, particularly in a team teaching situation

5. Many of the problems and affordances exist across schemes

6. Picture is complex, the definition of NEST is locally contingent and NESTs’ experience and qualifications affect role and status (not just their ‘nativespeakerness’).

Global issues: team teaching relationship

Unsurprisingly, the relationship between the teachers (when team teaching is the norm) that predicates success

ALT Japan (Bilingual/Japanese nationality)‘I think [the local teacher is] the ideal model for the schools teaching. She always tries to speak English as much as she can. Sometimes she code-switches to Japanese if she doesn’t have that word…which Is a great actually, great model for the students…one of the male teachers, he doesn’t have English but it doesn’t matter because he’s very positive and enthusiastic and he always does some funny things in the classroom.. Building great rapport with me and with the students as well, so he’s like a bridge between me and the students.’

Global issues: team teaching relationship

NEST Korea (KET)My friends that were mainly in primary schools had younger co-teachers, less jaded co-teachers ((chuckles)) and they would plan lessons together…they go out for a coffee together. I felt a bit jealous of that.

Global issues: Planning

Nearly all teachers complain that planning time is not built into the schemes:

Local teacher – Fulbright Programme, Taiwan‘Actually the difficulty will be our timetable and also the schedule (.) so it can be hard because sometimes you have a set class and I have a set class in the same period so it will be hard.’

ALT Japan (Bilingual/Japanese nationality)‘How busy the teachers can be, and it was very difficult to find time to talk with them. No plans whatsoever. Unless like Miss Tschuiya, she intentionally made time for me…If someone who’s scheduling can be aware of how important it is to communicate for the team teaching, then that would make so much difference’.

Global issues: language policy

ALT Japan (Bilingual/Japanese nationality)ALT: The homeroom teacher will only do class management when the kids go too wild….I: Because they prefer that you would not speak Japanese?ALT: Yeah….the idea is if I speak Japanese they will speak Japanese to me…Most of the classes I am prohibited to speak that. Some of them.. who have no English whatsoever…actually asked me to use Japanese sometimes.

Language policy continued

NEST Koto-ku (Japan)‘I don’t feel comfortable with it. The only time I’ll ever utter a Japanese word is if I want to check the meaning of a vocabulary item. I’d actually prefer the team teacher to check it and say, ‘What’s this?’ in Japanese’

Local teacher in Hong KongParaphrase:Sometimes NESTs request the local teachers to explain in Cantonese, but in fact the school policy is that all English teachers should only use English with students.

Global issues: classroom roles

Fieldnotes

Japan (Koto-ku)Chris was left to do the teaching while the local teacher did a bit of ‘disciplining’ and a fair amount of turning a blind eye.

Hong Kong (NET)When we walked into class….all the students seemed engaged. When we walked in it felt like an interruption….As the lesson progressed the control of the lesson shifted from the local teacher to the NEST.

Global issues: classroom roles

Fieldnotes

Japan (ALT)Because the local teacher’s English was weaker, I had expected Chisu [the ‘NEST’] to take more of a lead. However, the opposite was true and Chisu was even more of an ALT in this class.

Korea (KET)The NEST showed very little initiative and everything about the class positioned him as lower in status: how the class began, where the teachers stood and the size of the teachers’ desks.

Concluding comments

Project on-going. Data collection completed. Analysis begun. Training materials being elicited.Preliminary findings suggest that NEST schemes – both official and local - remain popular, particularly in Asia, and that thousands of teachers, local and international, have a range of experiences on the programmesIt is likely, given the falling age of onset English language learning, that these schemes will continue, if not grow.This study and its outputs aim to support NESTs and local teachers to have successful experiences as well as uncovering current issues with the schemes from a range of stakeholders.

Thank you – any questions?