University Students' Perceptions of Native and Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers in the UAE.

This study focuses on the evaluation of native and non-native English instructors by 140 students enrolled in the Intensive English Program of a university in the United Arab Emirates. A forty-minute writing task was given to the candidates to elaborate on the contributions of the native and non-native instructors from various perspectives within a Grounded Theory approach. These perspectives included the instructor's oral skills, literacy skills, grammar, vocabulary, culture, teaching style, knowledge of L1 and experience of L2. The study adopts qualitative research methods in collecting and analyzing the data, where a Discourse Analytical approach is used to explore the students' perceptions of both native and non-native instructors. The results show that learners have positive perceptions of both native and non-native instructors, with distinctive qualities for each group. The findings point out that native speakerism is not a decisive factor in learners' preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]