Students Perceptions of Native and Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers in Japan and Korea Masataka Kasai, Kansai Gaidai College,

Japan, Jeong-Ah Lee Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul Soonhyang Kim, DYouville College, Buffalo, New York Bio data Masataka Kasai is currently an associate professor at Kansai Gaidai College. He has completed a PhD degree in Social Studies and Global Education at the Ohio State University. His research interests include global education in the English classroom, non-native issues, world Englishes, and online education. Jeong-Ah Lee is a postdoctoral researcher at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea. Her research interests include non-native English speaking teacher development, teachers English- teaching-specific-efficacy beliefs and English language proficiency, use of drama in language teaching and learning, and teaching English as an international language in the EFL context. Soonhyang Kim (PhD, Ohio State University) is an assistant professor and founding director of the TESOL masters and teacher certification program at DYouville College, Buffalo, New York, USA. Kims research interest includes second language teacher education, second language oral classroom discourse, non-native English-speaking professional development issues, on-line education, and TESOL program development. Abstract This survey study explores Japanese and Korean secondary school students' perceptions about their native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNESTs), concerning their competence in the target language and in language teaching, cultural and personal traits, teaching styles, and the classroom atmosphere the teachers establish. The purpose of the study was to examine and extend previous studies' findings concerning the characteristics of NESTs and NNESTs. Our study only partially supported the previous studies. While it corroborated the studies that reported language competence and cultural aspects as NESTs' strengths over NNESTs, anomalies were found when it came to personal aspects and competence in teaching language skills. Our findings suggest that students' perceptions about NESTs and NNESTs are situational, and contextual particularities and strengths and/or weaknesses of all teachers need to be understood on an individual basis rather than assumed as characteristic of any group of teachers.
Corpus Project The Foundations Development Year (FDY) Corpus Project (CP) is a unique project which is expected to produce exciting findings applicable to classroom teaching. The aim of this Project is to create discipline-specific corpora including materials from three compulsory courses which FDY students will take in their Freshman year. The purpose is then to use information and teaching materials derived from these corpora to further inform and supplement the materials currently being used in FDY courses. The CP group is working in collaboration with Dr. Nick Groom of the Centre for English Language Studies at Birmingham University in England.