If I had to learn a new language I would feel better with a native speaker teacher. Wouldn't you? Yet in my language teaching experience, I have had, believe it or not, more difficulties in teaching Italian, my mother tongue, than other languages. One particular experience in my life enlightened the reasons behind it.
I studied in an international college, and at the beginning of my college career I could select to take all classes in French (FR program), all in English (EN program), or a mix of the two (HYBRID program). Either way, I had to take a language level test, for the school to allow me into any specific program.
I decided to try for the hybrid program, thinking it would be more fun to have classes in both languages. After testing out for French I had a meeting with a professor for his feedback on my results. I still remember how shocked I was as he told me "You did great in the test, you actually scored better than mother tongue students". As I inquired on the reason for it, he explained "Native speakers often do not realize that the way they speak is not grammatically correct. When learning a foreign language, you pay attention to the rules you have been explained and you will make sure to apply them properly. Hence you will speak more correctly".
I went on with starting college and meeting many native French speakers, and soon realized what he meant. I could indeed hear recurrent mistakes.
In my classes, I have been finding myself making comparisons between the target language I was teaching and the English language, to highlight the differences in grammar rules for the student to better understand. It turns out that several students told me "Oh! this is grammatically wrong also in English, but it became common and accepted to say it otherwise". Would you like an example? The sentence "Who are you talking to?" in English is grammatically incorrect (never end a sentence with a preposition). The correct version would be "To whom are you talking?". Nevertheless, in common speaking, everyone uses the first option.
For the same reason, there are several advantages to being a non-native teacher. Here are a few:
they have studied the language as a foreigner and therefore know the grammar rules better than native speakers do.
they can better explain the rules because those rules have been explained to them.
they have had their own struggles in the learning and therefore have a better understanding of what can be challenging in the learning process.
they do not speak as fast because they are more aware of the difficulty of understanding.
they have a better learning/teaching structure because they were not born with it, so they know what one needs to learn to be able to speak.
There are also advantages to having a native speaker teacher, of course, and those apply at a more advanced level. Native speakers have a wider vocabulary, and are familiar with the idioms, which can be extremely hard to figure out as an advanced learner.
Now, are you ready to chose your teacher?
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