It is very common for people to think that teaching their native language will be easy. After all, you’ve spoken it all your life and have no problems understanding everything. Surely it can’t be that hard? Let me tell you that yes, it is that hard. So if you’re thinking about becoming an English teacher outside of an English-speaking country, here are a few things to consider that explain why teaching English is hard as a native speaker.
It’s difficult to know which bits are hard
As a native speaker, we do things naturally. We don’t think about why we say ‘If it were…’ instead of ‘If it was…’, nor why we can say ‘the large brown horse’ and not the ‘brown large horse’. Therefore, it can difficult as teachers to identify the things that students are going to struggle with, unless you’ve spent a few years studying the English language. And even after that, it’s still sometimes tricky! Not only are there difficult grammar structures and complicated words, but there are also things like different accents that might be harder to understand or acronyms, slang, abbreviations etc.
As a native speaker, whilst we don’t necessarily understand everything and everyone all the time, we are used to the sounds of the language. This means we don’t get very put off by certain things. But think about your twelve-year-old students who hear a Northern English accent or a Southern American accent for the first time! Words that you think are extremely obvious to understand are not always that easy for non-native speakers to pick up on. It takes quite a long time to be able to figure out which things are the common trip-ups and obstacles for students.
You probably won’t have all the answers
Along with not realising which bits of the English language could potentially cause problems, you most probably won’t have all of the answers when students ask you why things are a certain way. If you’ve studied English, particularly linguistics, then you probably have quite a wide understanding of the way the language works but even then, there are some things that are just unexplainable. There most likely is an explanation somewhere but often you just simply don’t know! Not having all of the answers is completely normal but it can sometimes frustrate students as they think that since you are a native, you automatically know the answers to everything.
A native accent is hard to understand
If you’re teaching English abroad in a school, you’ll notice that at first students will probably struggle to understand your accent. This is because the vast majority of their English teachers are not native speakers. Think about our French and German teachers in the UK. They are therefore used to having teachers that pronounce words with a non-native accent, or with a mixed British/American accent. Or even teachers that don’t really speak much English in their classes (which, yes, is sadly a reality…).
At the beginning of the year, you might have to slow down a bit, choose your words carefully, and make sure the instructions are also written down on the board in order to give your students the best chance possible at understanding you! Once they’re used to your accent though, they’ll no longer have this problem. An obvious advantage of having a native accent is that you can very legitimately correct students’ prononciation. This can massively help them with their speaking skills and confidence.
You will have to teach things you never knew about
Did you know that we pronounce the suffix -ed three different ways? Or that there is a whole list of irregular verbs in the past tense? I certainly didn’t before I started teaching and studying the English language! To me, it was just common sense that the past tense of ‘walk’ is ‘walked’ and that the past tense of ‘buy’ is ‘bought’ – I didn’t think any more of it. Yet, as an English teacher, you are expected to be able to master these things and more in order to teach them to your students. In some ways, being a native speaker means you know less about your own language than people studying it as a second language. This is where it is vital to have a solid foundation of grammatical and linguistic knowledge as simply being a native speaker is not enough.
You will become a walking dictionary
If you teach English abroad, you will officially become a walking dictionary. And a walking translator too. Not only will students ask you the meaning of every single word possible, but they will also ask you to translate things for them. Sometimes you will have the answers and sometimes you simply won’t. Especially if you have not quite yet mastered the language of the country you are in. What’s hard is learning how to explain things to students in the simplest way possible, whilst answering their question. Equally, sometimes the words they want translating into English result in a much too complicated sentence for them to understand. It’s up to you to rack your brains to try and find simpler synonyms or paraphrases that would be more useful to students!
We can’t forget that you will also become a walking dictionary and translator for your colleagues too. Being an English teacher means that practically all of your colleagues will have studied English at one point in their life. So they often enjoy asking you little questions!
All in all…
Being a native English speaker when teaching English to others has massive advantages and is very useful. It does, however, have quite a few pitfalls and is actually a lot harder than you think! If you are considering teaching English abroad, I would recommend that you study at least the basics of English grammar. This will stop you from being completely lost when you get asked to teach certain grammar points. Don’t forget that simply being a native speaker does not mean that you will be the perfect teacher! You still have to work hard and be prepared to learn lots of new things about your own language. It certainly is a rewarding experience, though, if you persevere and keep going!
Check out my post about staying organised as a teacher here.