Last week, I met one of my Vietnamese students in order to talk about the publicity video for the new-coming students in Vietnam. At the end of the conversation, she was angry a little bit and asked me. “Sir, why do you just say one or two words, when you talk to us (Vietnamese)?” I was somewhat surprised and embarrassed. I quickly answered back that I have never done that before. But she continuously asked me. “No, your English is totally different and speak very well, when you speak with Russian students or American professors.”

Was it? Did I? Right after I said goodbye to her, I just thought about the conversations that I made with Vietnamese students. She was right! I had a terrible prejudice, bias, and stereotyping to the Vietnamese students. Because of their strong and unusual accent (it may be unusual only to me), I just felt that their English is not perfect whenever I talked with them. What makes worse is that I was forced unintentionally to use easy words and short sentences all the time. In addition, when I talked to them in English, it is even less burdensome than I talk with people from English-speaking countries. However, I always tried to find out the proper words, whenever I speak with native English speakers.

Does it mean that the native English teachers are much better and more beneficial than nonnative English teachers, especially when students learn the competence of “Speaking”? I do not agree with this idea. Also, “which one is better, native or nonnative, in English language teaching” has been controversial among scholars. Reflecting on my experiece with Vietnamese students, I can’t erase the idea that native teachers may be even better than nonnative teachers. Nevertheless, teachers’ and students’ attitude toward both of them is the point that I must not ignore. In other words, teachers’ rash judgment, such as the prejudice, the bias, and the stereotyping to their students, can change their stuedents into good one or bad one, and vice versa.