The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a lucrative job market for English language teachers ever since English has become a mandatory subject for all professional studies. Native English-speaking teachers from the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; Arab teachers from Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan and Syria and non-Arab non-native teachers from Pakistan, India, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey are working side by side in a diverse and thriving field of English language in Saudi Arabia. The English language program administrators want to recruit native teachers but the supply does not meet the demand so they also hire Arab non-native and non-Arab non-native English as a foreign (EFL) teachers (Al-Hazmi 2015: p.139). The present study seeks to examine the effectiveness of the non-native teachers who have an additional non-Arab status. In this small scale mixed-method study, the quantitative data was collected by means of an online questionnaire that was administered to 12 supervisors from four universities in Saudi Arabia. For further and deeper understanding of the emergent themes, four selected participants were interviewed on the phone. The findings reveal that, contrary to what administrators believe, the supervisors who oversee the curriculum delivery, do not see the exclusive importance of native or non-native status. The supervisors believe that native, Arab non-native, and non-Arab non-native teachers have their strengths and weaknesses. What is more important is the professional preparation and relevant experience and a working environment where they work collaboratively.
Keywords: Native non-native English-speaking teachers, EFL/ESL/TESOL, Native Speaker Fallacy, and TESOL job market.
The Bridge: Journal of Educational Research-Informed Practice 