Error perceptions of native-speaking and non-native-speaking teachers of ESL

Abstract

This article compares the error perceptions of native and non-native ESL teachers from the United States and India, respectively. The teachers were asked to evaluate twenty sentences containing eight types of errors, representing those occurring most frequently in a sample of 97 compositions written by college-level ESL students. Analysis of the reponses indicated that native teachers were more tolerant of errors than non-native teachers and that, while both groups considered verb-related errors to be the most serious, generally the perceptions of the two groups were not alike. The article concludes with a discussion of how the results of the study can be used in marking student papers.