The CATESOL Journal

Recent research on how TESOL professionals educate nonnative English-speaking students in MA programs indicates a general conviction that native-speaking and nonnative-speaking MA students should be treated equally during their studies in MA programs. Absent from this discussion and much of the literature on thistopic, however, are the voices of the studentsthemselves, which raisesthe question of how well self-reports from TESOL professionals match the perceptions of the students in those MA programs. The current study aims to address this issue. On a survey of current and former students in MA TESOL programs across California, data suggest generally shared perceptions between TESOL professionals and students on the question of whether nonnative English-speaking and native English-speaking students are treated equally during their studies; however, several important differences exist. This paper examines these differences and discusses the mismatches between MA students’ perceptions of how nonnative English-speaking students are treated and those of their instructors.