Mismatches between Teacher Intention and Learner Interpretation; Significance of Non-Native Speaker Teacher of English

Abstract

There has always been a contradiction between the learner and teacher perceptions of classroom. The reason is that teachers and learners do not look at the same classroom event as a potential learning event. Some of the difficulties learners may encounter in understanding the aims and activities of the classroom are as a result of potential mismatches between their interpretation and their teacher’s intention. At the moment the teacher intention equally matches the learner interpretation of a given task, successful learning is likely to promote. Kumaravadivelu (2003) identifies ten potential sources of perceptual mismatches that ELT teachers should be aware of: cognitive, communicative, linguistic, pedagogic, strategic, cultural, evaluative, procedural, instructional, and attitudinal mismatches. It is thus important to discover potential sources contributing to the mismatches between teacher intention and learner interpretation. In the present study, an attempt was made to identify potential sources of mismatches between teacher intention and learner interpretation by observing and analyzing classroom events. During the observation period, the interaction between the teacher and the learners were closely considered. In general, the mismatches found between the non-native teacher intention and learner interpretation are in the following order, from top to down: communicative (37 %), strategic (26%), instructional (18.5 %), and linguistic (11.1 %), and procedural mismatch (7.4 %). However, during the observation, no cases of cognitive, pedagogic, cultural, evaluative, and attitudinal mismatches were encountered. Finally, the advantages of non-native speaker teacher of English to identify and minimize possible mismatches will be discussed.

Keywords: Perceptual Mismatches, Native Speaker Teacher, Non-Native Speaker