International English Center (IEC) Students’ Perceptions of Native English-Speaking Teachers in Indonesian EFL Context

Abstract

Students‟ perceptions of Native English Speaking Teachers (NESTs) constitute one of
the most interesting issues. This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of IEC students‟ toward the strengths and weaknesses of NESTs as well as the qualities of NESTs in EFL teaching. To represent Indonesian students, this study was conducted in International English Center (IEC) Jogja because the students came from various regions in Indonesia. Descriptive quantitative with a survey research was the method and technique used in this study. The sampling technique used in this study was saturation sampling technique which involved 35 respondents. A questionnaire was
used to collect data. It consisted of 19 questions comprising questions for the strengths and weaknesses of NESTs and those for the qualities of NESTs. The results of this study showed that the weaknesses of NESTs could be found in students‟ psychological aspects and NESTs‟ linguistic problems, which were 1/3 students felt frustrated because NESTs were not good at communication in bahasa Indonesia. A rather different point of view, the strengths of NESTs are on their competences in the target language, in teaching language skills (particularly good at teaching speaking skills), in designing teaching methodology, and in cultural understanding, which were the highest score of (68,6 %). Hence, this study presented the qualities of NESTs, including pedagogical skills, qualifications of education, and working experiences. The highest result of 71,4% was NESTs‟ quality in pedagogical skills.