Chapter 23: Shared Competence: Native and Nonnative English Speaking Teachers’ Collaboration That Benefits All

Issues concerning native English speaking teachers (NESTs) and nonnative English speaking teachers (NNESTs) have been the subject of considerable discussion and research in recent years (e.g. Braine, 1999; Kamhi-Stein, 2004). Many schools in English as a foreign language (EFL) environments have both NESTs and NNESTs on their English-teaching staffs. After working in just such a school in Brazil, and having seen the tremendous advantages that this can bring to the school, I conducted my doctoral research on the relationships between these two groups of teachers. I investigated school sites in both Brazil and Indonesia, examining how NESTs and NNESTs worked together and what level of satisfaction was reported by those who experienced NEST-NNEST interaction.