Attitudes of Palestinian Undergraduate Students Towards Native and Non-Native English Language Teachers and Their Relation to Students’ Listening Ability
Date
2016-10-01
Authors
Nafi’, Jamal Subhi Ismail
Qabaja, Ziad Mohammed Mahmoud
Al-Kar, Hibah Jabir Ibrahim
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
IISTE
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of Palestinian undergraduate students towards native and
non-native English language teachers and their relation to students' listening ability. To achieve this purpose and
to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses, the researchers adopted both the descriptive and
inferential approaches. For collecting data, a questionnaire and a listening test were designed and distributed
among 120 Palestinian undergraduate students to find out their attitudes towards both their NES and NNES and
their relation to students' listening ability. After the statistical analysis, the major findings of the study revealed
that attitudes of Palestinian undergraduate students towards Native and Non-Native English language teachers
were moderate in all items and sections, except for the teaching culture which was found to be with low attitudes
for native teachers. The findings also pointed out that the listening ability of Palestinian undergraduate students
towards native and non native English language teachers were higher for those who studied with native teachers
compared to those who studied with non native teachers. The findings also highlighted that there were significant
differences in the mean scores of the listening ability for Palestinian undergraduate students towards native and
non native English language teachers due to university. Based on the research findings some recommendations
are finally presented. The researchers concluded that students generally have positive attitudes towards both
teacher types (Native and Non-Native English language teachers), but the highest degree of the respondents’
preferences and attitudes are for and towards non native. Furthermore, the relation between attitudes towards
both teacher types and listening ability isn't found. There is more than one explanation for this, may be students
have an innate ability to listen to many types of speakers and comprehend and being guided through the process
of listening may lead the students to get rid of the feelings of fear from speakers when they listen.
Description
Keywords
Attitudes , Palestinian undergraduate students , native and non-native , language teachers , listening ability