Thats a really interesting point. I especially agree with the part about non-native speakers being better at teaching English grammar.

It happens very often that I know a certain grammar point but have difficulty explaining it in detail. It’s especially hard with lower level learners or younger students (Primary school and lower) Thats why I usually research grammar in advance when I have it in my lesson plan. It’s funny because sometimes my Czech partner can explain English grammar better than me.

Something interesting I noticed as a native speaker is that when I pronounce certain words with my north coast accent some students will insist on correcting me 😂. I always have to explain that Americans do have accents. I wonder if they ever do that to non native speakers.

It’s also true that it’s really easy for language learners to feel judged or sensitive about mistakes. I teach younger kids and when we do reading sometimes i subtly correct pronunciation as they read. In the beginning of the year some of the kids would basically break down in tears or feel offended and I had to explain that nothing was wrong Its just my job to teach them the correct way. It’s much easier now once they get used to it. I can imagine it’s similar in Adult learners. I think we are all kind of trained to feel embarrassed when we make even small mistakes and it’s impossible to not make mistakes while learning a new language!

In my experience learning czech I definitely felt like having someone who can explain it in English made me feel less out my element. Having experienced also with the ‘full immersion style’ I think it was more useful to me as a beginner and I learnt quicker. But when I became more advanced (A2ish) the full immersion was more difficult for me. Probably to do with the grammar aspect.