Attitudes of Palestinian Undergraduate Students Towards Native and Non-Native English Language Teachers and Their Relation to Students’ Listening Ability

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.

Keywords: Attitudes, Palestinian undergraduate students, native and non-native, language teachers, listening ability