The Importance of English Native Speakers in Palestine: The Excellence Center in Palestine is a community education center in Hebron that focuses on teaching English to local children. Being proficient in English is a crucial skill to succeed internationally. English is commonly spoken throughout much of the world due to Great Britain’s expansion during the colonial age. People in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, parts of Africa, India, and many smaller island nations speak English. It is also a very common second language in Germany, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. Speaking English opens many international opportunities for tertiary education and future employment.
Local schools provide English classes, but according to many students these classes are not comprehensive and are often taught by Palestinians with very little knowledge of the language. Children are exposed to incorrect grammar and pronunciation of words at a young age and this often affects their speech for the rest of their lives. The teachers at the Excellence Center all are proficient, if not fluent, in the language and have a lot of experience speaking with foreigners.
Additionally, the Excellence Center always has native English-speaking volunteers who assist with classroom activities. Issaq, one of the teachers who mainly works with upper-elementary age students, said that “most people come to [The Excellence Center] in order to learn English language because [the students] are sure that we have volunteers who are foreigners -they came from America, they came from Britain, from all over the world- in order to help Arab teachers here teach the proper English language.” These foreign volunteers are crucial in how the Excellence Center functions; they participate in lessons and organize games for the children that incorporate new vocabulary in a fun way. Issaq elaborates, “I use some foreigners to come with me -some volunteers to come with me- to the class to start speaking with my students using the English language which is considered the most beneficial dimension for students here”. These volunteers set the Center a part from other English programs in the area.
“Learning English without the native speakers is nothing… we cannot depend on Palestinian teachers who know English to teach the English language perfectly”
Issaq even credits his motivation for learning English to this style of teaching. He explained that when he was a kid in school, his teacher brought a native English speaker to class one day and it changed how he felt about the language. “Afterwards, I said ‘yeah, I want to learn English, I want to know everything about English”. He realized that even though English was one of the most difficult subjects in school, it would allow him to communicate with different people and bridge the divide between different cultures.
“If we want to learn a language we have to interact with each other, and if we want to interact with each other we have to learn the language”
Ahlam is another one of the teachers at the center. She focuses more on teaching early-middle school age students. She talked about how “the main benefit of any foreigner being with me is to help to students pronounce the words correctly like a native speaker”. She then continued to say that when the students work with volunteers they become more confident because “all of the students and non-native speakers are worried or afraid to speak to an American and another foreigner.” When students get exposed to conversations with native speakers, it becomes less scary for them.
This is why most of the games they play in class incorporate writing, speaking, and movement. This student-based approach is very effective because they learn each word with their whole body and not just from reading a textbook or by being lectured at. For example, when students were learning geography and land formations, each one would close their eyes ad point at the map, and then tell the class what they pointed at (i.e. land and the name of the continent, ocean, desert, sea, etc.).
This was fun for them and also allowed them to stay active and engaged throughout the lesson. Another game that the students frequently play in class is one where a volunteer will draw a picture on the board and whoever guesses what it first gets to write the vocab word on the board; this can also be reversed where a volunteer writes a word and the students get to draw it! By adding some healthy competition, the students push themselves harder to learn English. The main goal of all of these activities is to make learning fun for the children and to get them to use and hear as much English as possible each class. 
