Motivations for Using Native-Speaker Norms in Teaching English in the Netherlands

Abstract

The choice to use native-speaker norms in the classroom has been mostly restricted to a learner centred approach resulting in the motivation for the teacher to choose them becoming sidelined. This paper aims to take a closer look at the motivation of Dutch secondary-school non-native English speaking teachers to use or not use native-speaker norms. To investigate this, an attitudinal survey and personal interviews were carried out on Dutch non-native English speaking teachers. The survey (N = 48) suggests that Dutch non-native English speaking teachers in the Netherlands favour native-speaking norms over local norms. The interviews (N = 6) revealed similar results and suggest that the motivations predicted to play a role for not choosing native-speaker norms were applied on the choice between native-speaker norms. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation was considered more important than extrinsic motivation to the Dutch non-native English speaking teacher in their choice of norms to teach. However, the sample size in this research is limited, which prohibits any definite claims. Further research would benefit this area and provide more insight into the Dutch non-native speaking teachers’ motivation to use native-speaker norms.