Looking through the Lenses of Non-Native English Teachers: Native English Trainers in the Pro-ELT Programme

The world has held a strong predisposition towards native English-speaking teacher trainers in an endeavour to leapfrog the competencies of non-native English-speaking teachers. In the Malaysian context, realizing the acute decline in English proficiency among English teachers, the Ministry of Education recruited native English-speaking trainers through the implementation of an in-service training programme or better known as Pro-ELT (Professional Up-skilling for English language teachers). However, there have always been mixed results in regard to the outcomes of the Pro-ELT Programme. To this view, the study employed individual semi-structured interviews which were conducted with 5 Pro-ELT programme participants. The findings illuminated that all the study participants held positive perceptions of their native English-speaking trainers in the Pro-ELT Programme mainly because of their competencies, exemplary qualities and the confidence that they cultivated in the participants to communicate in English. Nevertheless, there is clamour for the recruitment of local trainers to better optimize the impact of the Pro-ELT Programme. Implications of the study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.