Are Native and Non-Native English Speaking Tutors Equally Effective?

Abstract

Many studies find a negative effect of non-native English speaking instructors on students' performance in universities where the language of instruction is English. However, the negative effect observed in the existing literature is not found in the study by Fleisher, Hashimoto and Weinberg (2002), which uses the sample of instructors who received training in the Ohio State University's PhD programme. In many economics departments in Australia, mainly because their PhD programmes are not large enough, it is unrealistic to have all the tutors trained in the methods recommended in Fleisher, Hashimoto and Weinberg (2002). This gives rise to a potential negative impact of non-native English speaking tutors on students' performance. Nevertheless, by analysing the panel data drawn from first-year quantitative methods, microeconomics and macroeconomics courses in an Australian university, we find no statistically significant difference in the effectiveness of small class teaching between native and non-native English speaking tutors.