Native Speakerism in the EFL Classroom: Senior High School Students' Perceptions of an American Volunteer Teacher at SMAN 1 Pelabuhanratu
Abstract
Volunteer native-speaker teachers are placed in Indonesian secondary schools through cooperation programs, yet how secondary students construct perceptions of native speakerism from this contact remains underexplored beyond higher-education research. This study aimed to examine how twelfth-grade students at a public senior high school in West Java perceived an American volunteer teacher's presence and positioned native English speakers as language models. A qualitative descriptive design was used, involving 27 questionnaire respondents and nine semi-structured interview participants, supported by classroom observation. Thematic analysis produced four themes: Teaching Experience, Emotional Response, Language Authenticity, and Learning Impact. Students perceived the volunteer's presence as novel and motivating, experienced anxiety that gradually gave way to confidence, associated native pronunciation with linguistic authenticity, and most interview participants shifted toward self-directed English learning through digital media. Sustained native-speaker contact can reshape secondary students' learning orientation and beliefs about language authenticity.
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References
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.31004/jele.v11i5.3056
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