What can natives learn from non-natives?

What natives can learn from non-natives, Melanie Johnson & Renata Franco, 16.50-17.35, Monday 18th April

Would you lie about your nationality if you were a non-native English teacher in an English-speaking country?

I was sad to hear that some would do so. Unfortunately, there is a big contradiction between the job market’s expectation about the accent of the employees and teachers' advice for their students on the way of speaking English.

The most significant recommendation that the presenters give for native speakers is to learn another language so that they can have the experience of language learning process. I simply loved this recommendation! Another important recommendation is to get rid of cultural stereotypes of your students and try to understand them!

In the question & answer part, I got more disappointed to hear that in Arizona, which is one of the states of the US, there is a law for schools to get rid of English teachers who have a strong accent!!! The year is 2011, but it seems that we have not gone beyond in terms of that dichotomy.

At the end of the session, we have decided that we need to create a big project to change this prejudice at both macro- and microlevels in order to empower speakers of other languages teaching English.