The Vocabulary Advantage: How Young Untrained Native Speakers Can Contribute To English Language Teaching

Globalization and the rapid spread of global English have brought about changes in the ways in which native (NS) and non-native speaker (NNS) teachers of English are deployed. For example, the emergence of well-qualified NNS teachers who undertake the bulk of English teaching in their own countries has been accompanied by a reduction in the numbers of NS teachers imported from overseas. This new balance has meant that NS and NNS teachers may have clearly-defined complementary roles within the same education system, with the NS teachers often regarded as temporary members of the local teaching force. While the international demand for experienced, well-qualified NS teachers may have dropped, interest in employing fresh native-speaker graduates has increased. For example, the Japanese JET scheme now employs over 4000 young native speakers. The paper explores the potential contributions of young native speaker teachers of English (YNETs) when they work alongside local English teachers. While YNETs may lack expertise in teaching and familiarity with the local school curriculum, they possess much larger English vocabularies than most of their local colleagues. It is proposed that a YNET's extensive vocabulary can serve as a valuable teaching resource, particularly in relation to providing learners with rich spoken input. The research literature on language learning confirms that input is an essential element in the second language acquisition process. The importance of exposure in second language learning should not be underestimated, particularly in relation to vocabulary acquisition, where learners need to have repeated encounters with new words before they are acquired. Yet few schools are able to provide an appropriate level of systematic exposure to target vocabulary items. However, a YNET/local teacher partnership can help to enrich vocabulary exposure provided both types of teacher base their teaching on an agreed vocabulary curriculum.