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Like many other English teachers out there, I am a non native English speaker. In this summative task I would like to discuss some of the disadvantages, but more importantly, some of the often overlooked advantages of teaching as a non native speaker. Let's start with some disadvantages. When assessing the work of students and correcting them, a non native speaker hears and sees small mistakes less easily than a native speaker. Maybe there is a better sounding alternative to a certain word, or the word order of a sentence is not totally natural in English, or a verb tense is not exactly wrong, but not the best option either: these small things will naturally stand out to a native speaker but might be overlooked by a non native speaker. Also, in a general sense the English proficiency of a non native speaker will be approach the level of a native speaker but will never really be the same. A non native speaker will probably have a smaller vocabulary and possibly also a less active one, as well as a more limited knowledge of proverbs and idioms. It is also possible that the non native speaker has more trouble understanding heavy accents. Finally, we all are inevitably influenced in our thoughts, ideas and concepts by our native language and we will always (at least partly) think and form concepts in our first language. That means a non native speaker might just formulate his thoughts differently than a native speaker and there might always be a slight trace of the syntax of L1 in the English of a non native speaker. Despite of all this, there are some strong advantages of a teacher who is not a native speaker. Such a teacher has learned the language as a second language himself; that means he learned English not in the natural process of language development of a small child, but through understanding of grammatical structures and memorizing vocabulary. As a result he possibly has a stronger understanding of grammatical rules, which a native speaker does not need because he doesn't need to know the rule to produce the correct language. Most of us have never learned many of the grammatical rules of our own native language because there is no need to. There rules are only laid down and taught to people who need the rule to be able to produce the correct grammatical structures. A teacher will have to explain these rules and having learned these himself when learning the language is an advantage. Also, he can understand the language learning process of his students from personal experience and can predict better what problems and difficulties might arise when teaching a certain language point. Something that might seem totally natural and easy to a native English speaker might be difficult for non native learners. Last but not least, a non native English teacher can be a good role model to his students because he can remind the students that he himself has learned the language in school (probably), just like them. He has the power to inspire them and give them the confidence that they can become just as fluent in English as their teacher!
