A large fraction of the teaching staff at our university has English as their second language. This is an increasing trend in universities in the UK , the USA , and the rest of the developed world, especially at institutions such as Nottingham whose aim is to compete in the world class league of research and teaching universities. While students with English as their second language is a recognized and much studied issue, the same cannot be said of lecturers with English as their second language. The aim of this project was to study the perceptions of students and of academic staff of our university on this important issue.

We collected students' views by means of anonymous individual questionnaires which covered different aspects of teaching by lecturers whose first language may not be English. Questionnaires were distributed to students across all years, including postgraduate, in our four schools. In most cases, questionnaires were given to students by staff members other than the authors to ensure anonymity and encourage honesty in the responses. Staff views were collected by means of an online questionnaire. We chose as our sample group the 2002 through 2005 PGCHE cohorts, and the questionnaire was distributed via the Merlin system. Apart from questions on teaching by lecturers with English as a second language, similar to those asked to students, staff questionnaires included a section on the respondent views on their own teaching performance and job satisfaction. In all, the response rate was between 25% and 30%, and we collected close to 300 responses in total.

Overall, our study indicates that students and staff have a positive view of foreign lecturers. Virtually no respondent disagreed with the statement "Foreign lecturers are an asset to the University", and over 70% of students indicated that lecturers for whom English is a second language had assisted their learning.

The detailed analysis of the responses shows many interesting trends. We find significant differences in student's views across schools, between genders and between native and non-native English speakers. Also, staff and students have different perceptions. 95% of foreign lecturers are either "confident" or "very confident" of their performance when delivering lectures (among native English-speaking lecturers it is 80%). However, a minority of students agree with the statement that lecturers with English as a second language "Are equally able communicators as lecturers for whom English is their native language".

The results in this project have implications for teaching practice and quality as well as upon the effects of internationalization throughout the University: schools need to recognize the importance of student perception of teaching by lecturers with English as a second language, and the knock-on effects on their learning; these results should inform teaching strategies and practice by foreign lecturers; and human resource departments may consider providing targeted support for their teaching. We hope that this study will be of interest to the university as a whole and especially to our fellow lecturers with English as a second language.