| Stran v tématu: [1 2] > | Poll: "Native English speakers are often the worst people to teach you English" Autor vlákna: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question ""Native English speakers are often the worst people to teach you English"".
View the poll results »
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A speaker is not necessarily a teacher...
| | | | Philip Lees 
Řecko
Local time: 07:17
řečtina -> angličtina
| Best people? | Dec 26, 2025 |
So who are the best people to teach you English?
Native German speakers? Native Swahili speakers? Native Tagalog speakers? Native Mandarin speakers?
Enquiring minds want to know.
| | | | Tom in London
Velká Británie
Local time: 05:17
italština -> angličtina
| That is so true | Dec 26, 2025 |
ProZ.com Staff wrote:
This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question ""Native English speakers are often the worst people to teach you English"". View the poll results »
That is so true; most English speakers can't speak English correctly and have an accent that learners should not pick up. I used to have a German friend who had studied English in Birmingham. Delightful though the genuine Brummy accent is when spoken by Brummies, it came as a shock out of the mouth of a woman from Frankfurt (where, coincidentally, the local accent is the German equivalent of Brummy)
To be fair, the same applies to languages other than English. I used to know a very middle class Englishwoman who took Italian classes in Rome and spoke with a Rome accent: IMO it's not the best for a foreigner to speak such heavily accented Italian.
[Edited at 2025-12-26 13:32 GMT]
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expressisverbis
Portugalsko
Local time: 05:17
angličtina -> portugalština
+ ...
| I don't fully agree... | Dec 26, 2025 |
I agree with Teresa.
I have seen first-hand that native speakers can be excellent language teachers, even without formal training.
I knew someone whose native language was Moroccan Arabic (Darija), and he learned European Portuguese almost entirely through daily interaction with Portuguese co-workers who were not teachers.
He even acquired a Northern Portuguese accent very close to that of a native speaker.
On the other hand, I had a Portuguese native teacher at univers... See more I agree with Teresa.
I have seen first-hand that native speakers can be excellent language teachers, even without formal training.
I knew someone whose native language was Moroccan Arabic (Darija), and he learned European Portuguese almost entirely through daily interaction with Portuguese co-workers who were not teachers.
He even acquired a Northern Portuguese accent very close to that of a native speaker.
On the other hand, I had a Portuguese native teacher at university who taught French in my second year, and she was an excellent teacher and translator!
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_Guimarães
I cannot say the same about my first-year teacher, who was also Portuguese, whereas my third- and fourth-year teacher was a French native and a wonderful professional. With her, I achieved a very good mark.
These experiences show that teaching quality is not determined by nativeness, but by competence, training, and the ability to transmit knowledge.
PS: Um beijinho à Professora Regina e à Professora Martine!
[Edited at 2025-12-26 14:36 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gregor Trebec
Slovinsko
Local time: 06:17
angličtina -> slovinština
+ ...
It depends on how much you pay them.
| | | | Daryo
Local time: 05:17
srbština -> angličtina
+ ...
| ... could be ... | Dec 27, 2025 |
Native English speakers ... could be ... the worst people to teach you English
And also the best.
All depends on what exactly you want or need to learn.
If you landed in an area with some 'weird local accent' that 99% of the rest of UK can barely understand - that's what you'll need to learn. You won't get very far by telling locals they are 'the worst people to teach you English'!
If you expect to learn academic English from your average Sun r... See more Native English speakers ... could be ... the worst people to teach you English
And also the best.
All depends on what exactly you want or need to learn.
If you landed in an area with some 'weird local accent' that 99% of the rest of UK can barely understand - that's what you'll need to learn. You won't get very far by telling locals they are 'the worst people to teach you English'!
If you expect to learn academic English from your average Sun reader you won't get very far either.
If you want to learn English as really spoken by natives - well then there's no way natives could ever be 'wrong' - whatever they say. Which doesn't exclude the possibility of three natives having four different opinions if you ask them about some 'correct usage'.
There is also the difference between 'learning by simply listening' and 'learning by being taught' - in itself being native is neither here nor there when it comes to teaching. So that would the case when truly 'native English speakers are often the worst people to teach you English' either because you don't need their version of English or they don't have any teaching skills.
What is your 'intended audience' makes all the difference. I remember years ago when there was a lot of medical doctors coming from EU - most of whom had no problem with academic English - the NHS felt the need to organise 'courses in English' for them so they could understand the variant of English their would-be patients really speak! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | It depends on whether they are teachers | Dec 27, 2025 |
It is almost more important, at least at teh early stages, to be a good teacher than to be a native speaker.
Many natives have simply not thought out where to begin, and what their students need to know. This will vary, depending on the students' own native language. It comes as a surprise to many English just how hopeless our spelling is - seriously, not just as a joke.
Some points of grammar that we find obvious are either illogical or complicated. Not all natives can... See more It is almost more important, at least at teh early stages, to be a good teacher than to be a native speaker.
Many natives have simply not thought out where to begin, and what their students need to know. This will vary, depending on the students' own native language. It comes as a surprise to many English just how hopeless our spelling is - seriously, not just as a joke.
Some points of grammar that we find obvious are either illogical or complicated. Not all natives can explain the rules: "It sounds wrong" is not helpful!
I have to admit that I have learnt a lot of English from Danes, but most of all, instead of just playing by ear, I have learned to look things up, check for alternative ways of saying things, and to know why I finally decide on one version or another.
I am still not a good teacher, but I know a lot of people who are, and some could teach you English. ▲ Collapse
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Michael Kelly
Francie
Local time: 06:17
Člen (2022)
němčina -> angličtina
+ ...
This could only be true with a lot of additional assumptions: a native speaker with no knowledge of grammar would be worse than a competent non-native speaker with good knowledge of grammar, assuming grammar is what you want to learn.
The best thing is a native teacher with knowledge of grammar.
What I see here in France is that non-native teachers of English, even with the appropriate qualifications, still often make mistakes. For instance, there are adverts to "learn ... See more This could only be true with a lot of additional assumptions: a native speaker with no knowledge of grammar would be worse than a competent non-native speaker with good knowledge of grammar, assuming grammar is what you want to learn.
The best thing is a native teacher with knowledge of grammar.
What I see here in France is that non-native teachers of English, even with the appropriate qualifications, still often make mistakes. For instance, there are adverts to "learn English" where the E is in lower case.
And actually there is one thing which comes with native speaker ability - when presented with a seemingly grammatical sentence, to judge whether something would actually typically be said that way.
That is why, despite having lived in France for 18 years, I would be much less willing to teach French, particularly at higher levels. Actually the level is important - sometimes in language schools I saw high-level students of English being assigned a non-native teacher for their individual lesson, which made no sense at all from my point of view.
[Edited at 2025-12-29 12:16 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosna a Hercegovina
Local time: 06:17
angličtina -> francouzština
+ ...
Michael Kelly wrote:
This could only be true with a lot of additional assumptions: a native speaker with no knowledge of grammar would be worse than a competent non-native speaker with good knowledge of grammar, assuming grammar is what you want to learn.
The best thing is a native teacher with knowledge of grammar.
What I see here in France is that non-native teachers of English, even with the appropriate qualifications, still often make mistakes. For instance, there are adverts to "learn English" where the E is in lower case.
And actually there is one thing which comes with native speaker ability - when presented with a seemingly grammatical sentence, to judge whether something would actually typically be said that way.
That is why, despite having lived in France for 18 years, I would be much less willing to teach French, particularly at higher levels. Actually the level is important - sometimes in language schools I saw high-level students of English being assigned a non-native teacher for their individual lesson, which made no sense at all from my point of view.
[Edited at 2025-12-29 12:16 GMT]
Yes, but apart from knowing “whether something would be said that way in English”, they also need to know *why* it’s said that way and how to explain it and render to students, which, let’s be honest, many native speakers don’t and don’t have qualifications to do. I have found that native speakers with a degree in English actually teach lit. to native English speakers at the Uni/high school, and they don’t go around teaching foreigners. Those who teach foreigners commonly have only one qualification - being a native speaker -. Which is nice, but not enough.
But the question in the poll is overstatement and overgeneralization, this may be true for some native speakers, but not all. Nothing to do with their dialect, but mostly to do with their teaching skills.
[Edited at 2025-12-29 18:22 GMT]
| | | | Samuel Murray
Nizozemsko
Local time: 06:17
Člen (2006)
angličtina -> afrikánština
+ ...
| Depends on your own level of English | Dec 31, 2025 |
This depends on your own level of English. If you are a beginner, then a native speaker is the best teacher. If you can already speak English fairly well, then you need someone who knows the language well, not someone who can speak the language well.
| | | | | It goes for all native speakers | Jan 6 |
If people are not Teachers, they are generally not good sources of Teaching.
This goes for any language.
What native speakers are great for is sources of language and not explanations of language. (At least not in a structured way)
Native speakers of any language are actually some of the worst teachers of that language, even if they are teachers of a foreign language. Because if they learned that foreign language they have far more to intimate... See more If people are not Teachers, they are generally not good sources of Teaching.
This goes for any language.
What native speakers are great for is sources of language and not explanations of language. (At least not in a structured way)
Native speakers of any language are actually some of the worst teachers of that language, even if they are teachers of a foreign language. Because if they learned that foreign language they have far more to intimately say on the process of tackling it and the mindset of how another person from a similar background would tackle it. But they have no idea what learning their language is like.
Native speakers do not understand how their language works. They just do it.
I could rant and rave about Japanese grammar, vocab, conjugations, cultural quirks, sayings, patterns of Kanji -- for hours.
I am however not at all equipped to answer anyone's question about English on a language Q&A website once they start using specialist language.
"In this sentence, what part is the auxillary verb?"
I have no idea.
I can tell you how we say something, based on how natural it sounds.
I cannot give you an explanation of English grammar.
It would probably take research for me to adequately explain when "I" is used and when "Me" is used.
But I use them right.
You can rely on any native speaker to be a good source of the language.
But that doesn't mean they can consciously teach you the language.
They can be one of many people you witness the language from. But actually making them stop and cater to you may be counter-productive. ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London
Velká Británie
Local time: 05:17
italština -> angličtina
Yes Jonathan - I often think how lucky I am to have been born into the English language. Learning it must be a nightmare - technically - and is made worse by the perception that English is an imperialist language that is being forced upon everyone else. Certainly, in my experience with Italians and French people, there is a deep sense of resentment and of simply not wanting to learn the native language of (for example) Trump.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosna a Hercegovina
Local time: 06:17
angličtina -> francouzština
+ ...
| Source vs. teaching | Jan 8 |
Yes, but if you serve as a source or QA, then you are a consultant, not a teacher. Those are two eniterely different things. I thought this thread was about teaching.
Native speakers with a degree in English do know what an auxiliary verb is.
| | | | | English language dominance | Jan 8 |
Tom in London wrote:
Yes Jonathan - I often think how lucky I am to have been born into the English language. Learning it must be a nightmare - technically - and is made worse by the perception that English is an imperialist language that is being forced upon everyone else. Certainly, in my experience with Italians and French people, there is a deep sense of resentment and of simply not wanting to learn the native language of (for example) Trump.
According to what I read about the history of interpreting before and after WWII, it was after WWII that the English language started its dominance as an unofficial "lingua franca," replacing French.
Since then, English dominance has grown exponentially in niches such as entertainment and the Internet. The most well-known streaming services, social networks, and tech companies involved in AI development come from the USA. So it isn't just a coincidence that more than half of the Internet's content is in English, even when most Internet users aren't native English speakers.
The other big niche where the English language dominates, and, IMHO, it does NOT do any good, is in research. Research in English gets an awfully more widespread publication than research in any other language, so researchers know they must publish in English to get funds to keep on researching. I think that affects the type of research that researchers do, because nobody is interested in researching anything that English language journals or publishers aren't keen to publish, so it eventually diminishes different cultural visions and silences different voices, making the research field less diverse, less challenging, less critical, and much more monotone and repetitive.
I think English language dominance is a huge cultural problem in the current world.
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