Native teachers, non-native teachers and ELF. Same aims, different approaches?


Abstract


The spread of English used as a lingua franca (ELF) in several multilingual communicative settings and the emergence of World Englishes (WE) have inevitably impacted on the field of English language teaching (ELT) calling into question traditional notions and assumptions and highlighting the need to revisiting teachers’ roles and approaches to the English classroom. In this respect a research study was carried out withing a recent PRIN project which aimed at the exploration of ELF pedagogy in the Italian school contexts. The Roma 3-unit members investigated teachers’ current practices in English language classrooms, with the research objective of enhancing WE and ELF aware teaching to be implemented especially in the training of teachers involved in multilingual learning environments. Two online questionnaires were used in order to gather data from non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) and English Language Assistants (CEL) – i.e. native English-speaking teachers (NESTs), to investigate current ELT practices as well as teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about the current status of English both in Italian high schools and at university level. This paper aims at illustrating the findings of the survey administered to almost 80 NESTs working as language assistants in Italian universities and language centres. A 32-question survey was administered in 2017 to investigate native teachers’ ELF-awareness, attitudes and beliefs, especially, in ELT current routines and concerns, models and lesson planning, material development and assessment criteria. The main results will highlight respondents’ emerging identities as native teachers as well as their positions and views towards ELF-awareness and New Englishes (NE). Implications for the need to go beyond the deep-rooted discriminatory dichotomy ‘NESTs vs. NNESTs’ and for the reconceptualization of the role of ELT for the new societal trends will also be discussed.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i22390359v38p337

References


Balboni P. 1998, Un profilo professionale per il docente di madrelingua straniera nelle università italiane, in Semplici S. (ed.), Formazione e ruolo del lettore di lingua, Università per Stranieri, Siena.

Canagarajah A.S. 2005, Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice, Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.

Chang T.S. 2007, Assumptions about foreignness in English learning, Tamkang University, Taiwan.

Chen W.C. and Cheng Y. 2010, A case study on foreign English teachers’ challenges, in “System” 38 [1], pp. 41-49.

Cook V. 2008, Second language learning and language teaching, Hodder Education, London.

Creese A., Blackledge A. and Takhi J.K. 2014, The ideal ‘native speaker’ teacher: Negotiating authenticity and legitimacy in the language classroom, in “The Modern Language Journal” 98 [4], pp. 937-951.

Crystal D. 2003, English as a global language, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Deterding D. 2010, ELF-based Pronunciation Teaching in China, in “Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics” 33 [6], pp. 3-15.

Galloway N. 2013, Global Englishes and English Language Teaching (ELT) – Bridging the gap between theory and practice in a Japanese context, in “System” 41 [3], pp. 786-803.

Hall G. 2011, Exploring English Language Teaching: Language in Action, Routledge, Oxon.

Holliday A. 2005, The Struggle to Teach English as an International Language, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Holliday A. 2011, Intercultural Communication and Ideology, Sage, London.

Jenkins J. 2000, The Phonology of English as an International Language, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Jenkins J. 2012, English as a Lingua Franca from the classroom to the classroom, in “ELT Journal” 66 [4], pp. 486-494.

Kachru B. 1985, Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle, in Quirke R. and Widdowson H.G. (eds.), English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 11-30.

Kramsch C. 1997, The privilege of the non-native speaker, in “PMLA” 112 [3], pp. 359-369.

Kubota R. 2009, The politics of cultural difference in second language education, in “Critical Inquiry in Language Studies” 1 [1], pp. 21-39.

Leung C., Harris R. and Rampton B. 1997, The idealised native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities, in “TESOL Quarterly” 31 [3], pp. 543-560.

Liu L. 2008, Co-teaching between native and non-native English teachers: An exploration of co-teaching models and strategies in the Chinese primary school context, in “Reflection on English Language teaching” 7 [2], pp. 103-118.

Mahboob A. 2010, The NNEST lens, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Maum R. 2002, Nonnative English-speaking teachers in the English teaching profession, in “Eric Digest”, pp. 1-7.

Mckay S.L. 2002, Teaching English as an International Language, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Medgyes P. 1994, The non-native teacher, Heuber Verlag, Ismaning.

Medgyes P. 2001, When the teacher is a non-native speaker, in “Teaching pronunciation”, pp. 429-442.

Newbold D. 2019, Collaboratori linguistici – current roles, possible futures?, in “RILA, Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica applicata” 1, pp. 66-74.

No K-S. and Park K-J. 2008, Some Thoughts on the Native Speaker of English, in “Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics” 12 [2], pp. 71-92.

Park J-K. 2008, EPIK and NEST-NNEST collaboration in Korea revisited, in “English Language and Literature Teaching” 14 [4], pp. 141-160.

Pennycook A. 1994, The cultural politics of English as an international language, Longman, London.

Phillipson R. 1992, Linguistic Imperialism, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Schneider E. 2003, The Dynamics of New Englishes: From Identity Construction to Dialect Birth, in “Language” 79 [2], pp. 233-281.

Seidlhofer B. 1999, Double standards: teacher education in the Expanding Circle, in “World Englishes” 18 [2], pp. 233-245.

Seidlhofer B. 2011, Understanding English as a Lingua Franca, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Selinker L. and Lakshmanan U. 1992, Language and fossilization, in Gass S. and Selinker S. (eds.), Language Transfer in Language Learning, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, pp. 197-216.

Trudgill, P. 1999. Standard English; What it isn’t, in Bex, T and Watts, R. J. (eds.) Standard English: The Widening Debate, Routledge, London, pp. 117-128.

Widdowson H.G. 1992, ELT and EL Teachers: matters arising, in “ELT Journal” 46 [4], pp. 333-339.

Widdowson H.G. 1994, The Ownership of English, in “TESOL Quarterly” 28 [2], pp. 377-389.


Full Text: pdf

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
کاغذ a4

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.