TURKISH TERTIARY LEVEL EFL STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF NATIVE ENGLISH-SPEAKING TEACHERS AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH-SPEAKING TEACHERS

Native English-speaking teacher (NEST) and non-native English-speaking teacher (NNEST) dichotomy has been around over a number of decades, and the prevailing view regarding the dichotomy has been that native speakers have been brought forth and prioritized in the field of English language teaching merely due to being a native speaker of English. The objective of this study is to explore Turkish tertiary level EFL students’ perceptions of NESTs and NNESTs. So as to discover the perceptions of the participants, a close and open questionnaire was conducted. The findings yield that the participants preferred to be taught English by both NESTs and NNESTs according to the areas they were considered to be competent at teaching. NESTs were contemplated to be good at teaching speaking, pronunciation, and target culture, whereas NNESTs were perceived to be good at teaching grammar, reading, and writing. The results also indicate that students placed importance on teachers’ teaching experience and qualifications while evaluating their performance as English language teachers.