Choosing An English Teacher: Native or Non Native Speaker?

What is the better to learn English, choosing a native or non-native English speaker? Opinions vary at this point. But we think that there is not a rotund answer here, there are advantages and disadvantages to both, and being aware of them will help you to choose the right decision for you. Depending of what you pretend of what your English level already is, the answer will be different.

Native speakers contribute with a real perspective and real use of the language. They use it how it really is used in daily life, with the vocabulary, popular phrases and pronunciation that you will hear if you travel or live in an English country. If your main goal is to be able to communicate easily, to interact with native speakers informally, to understand and being understood regardless of the grammar correction, then a native speaker would be most appropriate. We could claim that probably you will be orally communicating in English faster and easier than with a non-native. When you start talking in the second language, you have more chances of being immediately understood and of having better listening skills than with a non-native teacher.
That would be not the case if English as a second language is being learned aiming to reach a deep management of the language with correct writing or reading skills. If it is for professional purposes for example, that require not only being able to communicate orally but also have a proper grammar acquisition, we would certainly advise to go the other way and choose a professional non native English teacher, whom after long years of studies and practice will handle all aspects with professionalism, providing an academic teaching that includes grammar, spelling and phonetics. What a non-native teacher also posses is the empathy with the student, he/she personally understands the difficulties that the student might be facing as he/she has already “been there, done that”. Those who are quite biased in this matter have stated that a non-native teacher is always better than a non-teacher native.

Again, in our opinion both can be beneficial and deserve same respect but that all depends of what you are looking for.