• Neda Karshenas

  Author

• Reza Biria

  Author

The present study aimed at finding out whether there existed a relationship between NES teachers’ background cultural knowledge and EFL students’ performances including listening comprehension and oral production. The first research question posed was related to the effect of NES teachers’ background cultural knowledge on EFL students' listening comprehension when the text is rich in cultural words and concepts. It was concluded that NES teachers’ cultural knowledge positively affects EFL students’ aural performances. The second research question focused on the effect of NES teachers’ background cultural knowledge on EFL students' oral production when they need to talk about culturally specific materials. The results indicated that NES teachers’ cultural knowledge has positive effects on EFL students’ oral production. The third research question, aimed at finding the students’ attitudes regarding the perceived quality of NNES/NES teachers' capabilities. The students' attitudinal responses toward NES and NNES teachers in this study, were found to be significantly different; that is the analysis of the questionnaire used in this study showed great differences in the students' attitudes toward the two kinds of teachers.
The statistical analysis indicated that EFL learners instructed by NES teacher outperformed the subjects in the NNES group. The finding revealed that there existed a positive relationship between NES teachers’ background cultural knowledge and EFL students’ performances including listening comprehension and oral production. The results also depicted that EFL learners mostly preferred to be instructed by NES teachers. The findings may offer benefits to NNES teachers, materials developers, and policy makers to provide teaching materials for EFL students in such a way that treat language culturally.

• pdf