Jason Chan
ICN Business School Nuernberg
The number of non-native English speaking teachers has exceeded that of native English speaking teachers worldwide with the rapid spread of English as a Lingua Franca (Boonsuk & Ambele, 2019). There have been extensive debates on what characterizes the ideal English language teacher in recent years, mostly about the idea of the native vs. non-native speaker (Walkinshaw & Oanh, 2014). With its colonial history and as an imperial legacy, English has created the native speaker versus non-native speaker polarity. Questions of identity and legitimacy of non-native English speaking teachers have become intertwined with these debates. This presentation is based on findings from my doctoral dissertation which aims to describe the experiences faced by me as a non-native English language teacher, transitioning from an Asian adult educational context to a Western higher educational context, and comparing these experiences with those of non-native English speaking instructors in the research literature.
The goal of this oral presentation is to contribute to a broader discussion of the previously stated issue through a summary of an autoethnographic study. The talk shall explore the complexity of my professional identity as a non-native English speaking teacher who has worked in both Asia (Hong Kong) and Western Europe (Germany), utilizing an evocative autoethnographic lens and employing Crenshaw's (2018) intersectionality as a framework to examine the critical instances in my professional contexts. By using Intersectionality as my theoretical framework, one that posits that multiple social categories interconnect at the level of individual experience to reflect multiple interlocking systems of oppression at the social-structural level, I hope to highlight the overlaps of power, race, and ideology as they relate to issues of identity and legitimacy of other English teachers of ethnic backgrounds.
Das Ziel dieser mündlichen Präsentation ist es, durch eine Zusammenfassung einer autoethnographischen Studie zu einer breiteren Diskussion über die Frage der Polarität von Muttersprachlern gegenüber Nicht-Muttersprachlern beizutragen. Der Vortrag soll die Komplexität meiner beruflichen Identität als nicht muttersprachlicher Englischlehrer, der sowohl in Asien (Hongkong) als auch in Westeuropa (Deutschland) gearbeitet hat, unter Verwendung einer suggestiven autoethnographischen Linse und unter Verwendung der Intersektionalität von Crenshaw (2018) als Rahmen für die Untersuchung der kritischen Fälle in meinen beruflichen Kontexten untersuchen. Indem ich die Intersektionalität als meinen theoretischen Rahmen benutze, einen, der postuliert, dass mehrere soziale Kategorien auf der Ebene der individuellen Erfahrung miteinander verbunden sind, um mehrere ineinander greifende Unterdrückungssysteme auf der sozialstrukturellen Ebene zu reflektieren, hoffe ich, die Überschneidungen von Macht, Rasse und Ideologie hervorzuheben, wenn sie sich auf Fragen der Identität und Legitimität anderer Englischlehrer mit ethnischem Hintergrund beziehen.
References:
- Boonsuk, Y., & Ambele, E. A. (2019). Who ‘owns English' in our changing world? Exploring the perception of Thai university students in Thailand. Asian Englishes, 00(00), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2019.1669302
- Crenshaw, K. (2018). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics [1989]. Feminist Legal Theory: Readings in Law and Gender, 1989(1), 57–80. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429500480
- Walkinshaw, I., & Oanh, D. H. (2014). Native and non-native English language teachers: Student perceptions in Vietnam and Japan. SAGE Open, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014534451
Jason Chan has been engaged in the area of TEFL for about 15 years. Currently he is an adjunct instructor of English at local higher education institutions in Germany, where he resides with his family. Always up for new challenges, he is at the moment pursuing his Ed.D with the University of Glasgow.