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This study explored the impact of the importation of expatriate English teachers on the morale of the Malaysian English teachers and attempted to identify the perceptions of Malaysian English teachers, expatriate native English-speaking teachers (NESTs), and expatriate nonnative English-speaking teachers (nonNESTs) regarding the practices that are prevalent in Malaysia in areas such as hiring, remuneration, and benefits. An initial questionnaire was completed by the participants to ensure that they fit the target demographic profiled. Then, a semi-structured interview was conducted as a follow-up to the participants' open-ended responses in the second part of the questionnaire. Completed questionnaires were gathered from ten participants, and two semi-structured interviews were conducted with an expatriate NEST and a Malaysian nonNEST respectively. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze responses to the seven-point Likert-scale statements. In addition, this study took a qualitative approach in analyzing the core themes of the responses in the semi-structured interview and the questionnaire. Examining individual survey items and interviews revealed that there is a large discrepancy in wages between NESTs and nonNESTs in Malaysia, and this contributes to the unhappiness and low morale of Malaysian English teachers. In addition, the presence of expatriate NESTs causes Malaysian nonNESTs to have low self-esteem as they compare themselves to their native counterparts. This study also revealed that participants felt that the importation of expatriate NESTs had no significant impact on improving the language proficiency of students. Owing to the perceived failure to deliver desired results, the majority of the participants agreed that hiring qualified and experienced English teachers (not on the basis of one's race or first language) is paramount in improving the language proficiency of Malaysian students. The analysis of the data collected resulted in recommendations for a more in-depth study of the impact of the importation of expatriate NESTs/nonNESTs to the morale of Malaysian nonNESTs and the improvement of the language proficiency of Malaysian students. Also, the contributing factors for the decline of the English proficiency of Malaysian students should be thoroughly evaluated so as to affect change.

El siguiente trabajo pretende analizar el nivel de desarrollo de la competencia pragmática en usuarios nativos y no-nativos del español con origen chileno y sueco respectivamente. Se han analizado una serie de conversaciones telefónicas endolingües y exolingües y se han comparado en términos de longitud y en organización de sus secuencias de negociación. Por otro lado, también se ha observado en detalle la cantidad y tipología de marcadores lingüísticos de mitigación utilizados en ambos grupos. A partir de dicho análisis conversacional comparativo se pretendió determinar en qué medida un usuario no nativo de nivel avanzado en español inmerso en una cultura hispanohablante ha logrado dominar la segunda lengua en términos del dominio del discurso y el uso funcional de los recursos lingüísticos de acuerdo a un cierto escenario de intercambio comunicativo. Como resultado se han observado diferencias entre los usuarios nativos y no-nativos en relación con la producción de marcadores de mitigación pero no en la longitud y organización secuencial de las conversaciones. / The following paper aims at analyzing the level of development of pragmatic competence among native and nonnative Spanish speakers from Chile and Sweden. A series of endolinguistic and exolinguistic phone conversations have been analyzed and compared with regard to their length and the organization of negotiation sequences. Also, the amount and types of linguistic mitigation markers used in both groups have been accounted for. The overall aim of this comparative study in conversation analysis is to determine in which way nonnative advanced Spanish L2 speakers immersed in a Hispanic culture have been able to master the second language in terms of discourse command and functional use of linguistic resources in a given communicative activity type. Differences were found between native and nonnative speakers with regard to mitigation markers production but not in the length and organization sequence of the conversations.

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No description available.