Teacher Identity

Investigating multiple identities of Speakers of Other Languages Teaching English, Andrew Blair, Sunday 17th April

He raised a very big question for ELT: How do the macrosocial factors relate to teachers’ multiple identities and languages?

Have you ever though that the word phrase non-native teacher is enough to create negative connotations itself? Therefore, he used the terms “Multilingual English Teachers” and “Speakers of Other Languages Teaching English.”

In the teacher-interview focus, the teachers’ responses to the “hairdresser question” (what do you do?) were investigated. Interestingly, some teachers stated that they would say EAP/study skills tutor as they sound better than “English teacher.”

More interestingly, there is one case of a non-native English teacher who anglicised her name to get a teaching job!

According to him, there is also an unspoken aspect of racism/ideology in ELT that needs further research as previous research suggests that white Europeans will be more likely to find a job as an English teacher than the Black British, which is a pity!

I recommend you to think about those questions for your own situation:

1) Would you anglicise your name for a job?
2) What would you say as a response to “what do you do”?