The Native Speaker Fallacy 6q3v4z

Applied Linguistics Advance Access published July 18, 2011 Applied Linguistics 2011: 1–5

ß Oxford University Press 2011

REVIEW George Braine: NONNATIVE SPEAKER ENGLISH TEACHERS: RESEARCH, PEDAGOGY, AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH. Routledge, 2010.

ed from applij.oxfordjournals.org at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Bibliotheek on July 22, 2011

Today we live in a very interesting world. The English language, spoken approximately by two billion people in varying degrees of proficiencies (Graddol 2006), is now considered to be ‘the world’s first truly global language’ (Crystal 2004: 4) and believed to have ‘touched the lives of so many people, in so many cultures and continents, in so many functional roles, and with so much prestige’ (Kachru 1990: 5). What makes this picture even more interesting is that it is acknowledged that non-native English speakers (NNSs) are estimated to outnumber their native speaker (NS) counterparts by three to one (Crystal 2003). Therefore, there is a growing realization that the ownership of English is shared by all its speakers, regardless of their ‘nativeness’ (Widdowson 1994). English language teachers, particularly non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) comprising 80% of the world’s English teacher labour force (Canagarajah 2005), have a unique role in the global triumph of English. Nevertheless, they are frequently perceived and treated at a lower professional status as compared with native English-speaking teachers (NESTs), which leads to unprofessional favouritism in many settings (Medgyes 2001) and unfair employment discrimination (Selvi 2010). Problematizing the politically and ideologically driven concept of ‘native speaker’ (Davies 1991), and demystifying the prevalent assumption that ‘the ideal teacher of English is a NS’ [a phenomenon (Phillipson 1992) calls the ‘NS fallacy’] paved the way to a reconceptualization of pedagogical and professional legitimacy in the NS/NNS dichotomy. These efforts have been institutionalized by the promotion of anti-discriminatory practices such as issuing position statements (TESOL 1992; 2006) and the establishment of the Non-native English-speaking Teachers Caucus within TESOL, Inc. and thereby planted the seeds for the emergence of a viable area of research: the NNEST movement. This legitimate area of research has exponentially grown in the last two decades and expanded in both depth and width and has resulted in several edited volumes (Braine 1999; Kamhi-Stein 2004; Llurda 2005; Mahboob 2010), nearly 200 scholarly journal and newsletter articles, tens of MA theses and PhD dissertations. In this picture, George Braine’s latest contribution to the NNEST movement, Nonnative Speaker English Teachers: Research, Pedagogy, and Professional Growth, requires attention for two reasons. First, in a singleauthored volume, it presents a coherent and accessible reading about the developmental trajectory and future directions of the movement.

2 REVIEW

ed from applij.oxfordjournals.org at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Bibliotheek on July 22, 2011

Secondly, it was written by one of the forefathers and highly acclaimed leaders of the NNEST movement, George Braine, who himself is a prolific researcher and dedicated NNEST, and the founder of the NNEST Caucus within TESOL, Inc. In the introductory chapter, ‘The Nonnative Speaker Movement’, Braine presents a very succinct overview of the movement by briefly reviewing its inception, growth, and major accomplishments. He highlights the discrepancy between multilingual and multicultural characteristics of the field and prevalent unprofessional practices against NNESTs as bitter realities of our profession today. Looking back 10 years after the formation of the NNEST Caucus, Braine reflects upon the goals and achievements of the movement. In the next chapter, ‘The Native Speaker-Nonnative Speaker Divide’, the author acknowledges that the field of English language teaching (ELT) is often characterized by the dichotomy of NESTs and NNESTs: NSs are stereotypically idealized whereas NNSs are viewed deficient or less-than-a-native. Clearly providing no concrete attempts to solve this matter, Braine contextualizes the dichotomy on the Kachruvian (1992) paradigm of concentric circles (Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circles), which postulates a more rational basis to discuss the issues related to these teacher populations. The succeeding two chapters (Chapter 3, ‘Research on Self-perceptions of NNS English Teachers’ and Chapter 4, ‘Research on Students’ Perceptions of NNS English Teachers’) present respectively a coherent review of the growing body of research dealing with how NNESTs perceive themselves and how they are perceived by their students. In a nutshell, these two chapters expand upon the growing literature through the eyes of NNESTs and their students in different parts of the world. Similarly, in the next three chapters, Braine embarks upon portraying descriptive and comparative analyses of personal s of teachers of English by adopting Expanding and Outer circles as a theoretical framework for analysis. While Chapter 5, ‘An English Teacher from the Outer Circle’, depicts the professional life of a practicing English teacher from Malaysia, Chapter 6, ‘An English Teacher from the Expanding Circle’, sheds an important and comprehensive light onto the life of an English teacher from China. Finally, Chapter 7 entitled ‘From Worlds Apart: The Lives of Two English Teachers’ cross-pollinates the issues and concerns of these two English teachers through utilizing four major categories, namely socio-economic backgrounds and early education, higher education, teaching and professional growth, and attitudes and perception. Building upon extensive research studies in the preceding chapters, Chapters 5–7 could be viewed as complementary efforts that ‘add depth to the research base on English language teaching’ (p. 61) by depicting a detailed of the individual teachers’ lives and their complex network of personal development and attitudes. The next chapter, ‘Extrinsic and Intrinsic Challenges Faced by NNS English Teachers’, revisits, highlights, and comments on the discriminatory attitudes towards NNESTs and reviews the anecdotal s and research studies which address these issues. The chapter was organized under two major

REVIEW

3

Reviewed by Ali Fuad Selvi and Bedrettin Yazan University of Maryland, USA E-mails: [email protected] doi:10.1093/applin/amr028

ed from applij.oxfordjournals.org at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Bibliotheek on July 22, 2011

subheadings, specifically ‘extrinsic challenges’, which refer to external sources of challenges that NNESTs encounter such as attitudes or discriminatory hiring practices, and ‘intrinsic challenges’, which refer to individually driven, perceived challenges that NNESTs develop themselves such as perceived level of proficiency. Up until this point, the book builds upon the recent historical development of the NNEST research and sets a very comprehensive scene referring to historical perspectives, personal s, anecdotal evidence, opinion pieces, and research studies which appeared in scholarly journals as well as in graduate-level work. However, the penultimate chapter, ‘Where Does the NNS Movement Go from Here?’, perhaps makes the greatest contribution by presenting different avenues that will further enhance the increasing momentum of the NNEST movement. More specifically, Braine argues that ‘enhancing the English language proficiency of NNS teachers’ (p. 81), ‘learning to collaborate with NS teachers’ (p. 84), ‘making the most of the professional organizations’ (p. 86), ‘diversifying the scope of the research on NNS English teachers’ (p. 88) are the milestones that will boost the influence and prominence of the movement in the field of ELT. The book concludes with a chapter entitled ‘Professional Development’ in which the author shares a list of recommendations for graduate students and emerging scholars embarking upon their journeys of academic publishing. Despite being targeted for a particular audience, many of Braine’s suggestions distilled through his personal experience as a prolific scholar are luminary for researchers of diverse expertise and interests. The NNEST movement has gained a considerable momentum as a legitimate area of research in the field of ELT in the past two decades. As Braine himself insightfully acknowledges in the introductory chapter ‘no discussion of World Englishes or the spread of English internationally is now complete without reference to the NNEST movement’ (p. 1). In this changing picture, George Braine’s book makes a high-caliber, accessible, and joyful attempt which overviews the existing status and outlines the future directions of the NNEST movement. The multifaceted nature of the volume which brings a meaningfully cross-pollinated discussion from different perspectives including teachers, teacher educators, researchers, students, and s will not only resonate with major stakeholders in the field of ELT, but also be greatly appreciated by them. This book will quickly become a must-read reference for anyone interested in a state-of-the-art snapshot of the NNEST movement, or for researchers who forge new pathways in the movement. We believe that this volume makes a prominent addition to the ongoing efforts towards building a professional milieu that ‘welcome[s] ethnic, racial, cultural, religious, and linguistic diversity’ (Selvi 2009: 51) in the field of ELT.

4 REVIEW

REFERENCES Medgyes, P. 2001. ‘When the teacher is a non-native speaker’ in M. Celce-Murcia (ed.): Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Heinle & Heinle, pp. 429–442. Selvi, A. F. 2009. ‘A call to graduate students to reshape the field of English language teaching,’ Essential Teacher 6/3–4: 49–51. Selvi, A. F. 2010. All teachers are equal, but some teachers are more equal than others: trend analysis of job ments in English language teaching. WATESOL NNEST Caucus Annual Review 1: 156–81. Available at https://sites.google.com/site/watesolnnestcaucus/ caucus-annual-review. Accessed 25 March 2011. Phillipson, R. 1992. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford University Press. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. 1992. ‘A TESOL statement of non-native speakers of English and hiring practices.’ TESOL Matters 2/4: 23. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. 2006. ‘Position statement against discrimination of nonnative speakers of English in the field of TESOL.’ Available at: http://www.tesol.org. Accessed 25 March 2011. Widdowson, H. G. 1994. ‘The ownership of English,’ TESOL Quarterly 28/2: 377–89.

ed from applij.oxfordjournals.org at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Bibliotheek on July 22, 2011

Braine, G. 1999. Non-native Educators in English Language Teaching. Erlbaum. Canagarajah, A. S. 2005. Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice. Erlbaum. Crystal, D. 2003. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press. Crystal, D. 2004. The Stories of English. Penguin. Davies, A. 1991. The Native Speaker in Applied Linguistics. Edinburgh University Press. Graddol, D. 2006. English Next: Why Global English May Mean the End of English as a Foreign Language. British Council. Kachru, B. 1990. ‘World Englishes and applied linguistics,’ World Englishes 9/1: 3–20. Kachru, B. 1992. The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures. University of Illinois Press. Kamhi-Stein, L. 2004. Learning and Teaching from Experience: Perspectives on Nonnative English-speaking Professionals. University of Michigan Press. Llurda, E. 2005. Non-native Language Teachers: Perceptions, Challenges and Contributions to the Profession. Springer. Mahboob, A. 2010. The NNEST lens: Non Native English Speakers in TESOL. Cambridge Scholars Press.

REVIEW

5

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTOR Ali Fuad Selvi is a PhD candidate in the Second Language Education and Culture program at the University of Maryland, College Park where he serves as a graduate teaching and research assistant. He is the current president of the Washington Area Teachers of English to the Speakers of Other Languages NNEST Caucus. His research interests include the global spread of English, second language teacher education, and issues related to non-native English-speaking professionals in ELT. His publications have appeared or are to appear in research-oriented journals such as TESOL Quarterly, World Englishes, and ELT Journal, as well as in practitioner-oriented venues such as Essential Teacher, TESOL NNEST Interest Section Newsletter, and WATESOL Newsletter. Address for correspondence: Ali Fuad Selvi, 2311 Benjamin Building, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. ed from applij.oxfordjournals.org at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Bibliotheek on July 22, 2011

Bedrettin Yazan is a second-year doctoral student and graduate teaching and research assistant in Second Language Education and Culture program at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is an active member of the Washington Area Teachers of English to the Speakers of Other Languages NNEST Caucus. His research interests include practicum practices of pre-service ESOL teachers, second language learner motivation from poststructuralist perspective and issues regarding accent in language learning. He has been publishing his work in such venues as TESOL Quarterly, European Journal of Teacher Education, ELT Journal, TESOL NNEST Interest Section Newsletter, and WATESOL Newsletter.