Who should teach English?

So there's a big debate in the English teaching communities in both Japan and other parts of E. Asia, notably South Korea. And the question is whether or not having native speakers in the classrooms as assistant language teachers (ALTs) is worth the expense. From what I have seen recently on some Korean teacher's blogs, apparently the Seoul board of education will be eliminating at least some of it's ALT positions. And of course, this has more than a few people in an uproar. Japan occasionally sees the same phenomenon. And the argument on the ALT side almost always comes down to this: I'm a native speaker. I know how English is really used. Regardless of what kind of training I have (or don't have), I am a valuable asset for the school and students. Admittedly, that generalization is just that - a generalized over-simplification of the argument put forth in favor of retaining the ALT positions. The argument almost always extends to: At least some of the non-native teachers that I work with are terrible and can't speak any English at all!

And you know what? I can sympathize with all of that. There are plenty of non-native speaking English teachers who don't speak much English. But there are also plenty who do speak English reasonably well. And you know what else? All of the non-native English teachers are trained teachers. Sure, that's no guarantee that they are going to be good at it.

But any guesses what percentage of the ALTs are trained teachers? Honestly, I can't say for sure, but based on my experience as an ALT, back when I first came to Japan - the number isn't terribly high. I was one of those ALTs untrained as a teacher. Only a small handful of the ALTs around me were trained as teachers. Which would seem to me to be a strike against ALTs.

And just as there are both good and bad non-native English teachers, the same applies to ALTs. Being a native born speaker of English doesn't automatically mean that you any business being in a classroom with 30 or 40 Japanese junior high school students.

And when asking student opinions about who they prefer, the data is very mixed. Students point out some positives about both native speaking teachers and non-native teachers. So often, when a certain data set comes out that seems to show students favoring teachers who share the same first language as the students, ALTs and the like are very quick, and rightfully so, that the data always refers to highly qualified, competent teachers. All I ask is that the ALTs apply the same rules to themselves when making the arguments. If we are going to argue in favor of ALTs, we need to make sure the ALTs are also highly qualified and competent. Go out and get your TESOL certificate. Do a master's program. You can do it online and not miss any paychecks. I'm doing it, working a full time job as the main English teacher at my technical college.

And whatever you do, when you post on webforums, complaining about the use of the English language in Japan or Korea or wherever you happen to be - please take extra care not to make simple mistakes. Don't use the word respectively when you mean relatively. And while I'm not asking you to go read every book in the world, I think that it should be fairly common knowledge that the Three Musketeers is not the original title of Dumas' book. It was NOT written in English. It was written in French. It was called Les Trois Mousquetaires. If you want to say that you are qualified to teach, don't give people reason to doubt it. Thanks.