The document discusses the need for TESOL scholars to take a stronger interdisciplinary approach and draw more from race theory when analyzing the native/non-native English speaker divide. It argues that race theory can provide insights into how native speaker status constructs linguistic identities and perpetuates inequality, similar to how whiteness constructs racial identities and privilege. The summary then analyzes how legal discourse and recruitment practices help socially construct the concept of the native English speaker and exclude non-native English speakers from benefits, mirroring how whiteness is constructed and excluded as property.

1. The need for an
interdisciplinary stance in
analyzing the NES/NNES divide
in TESOL
Todd Ruecker
The University of Texas at El Paso

2. My purpose
Building on Shuck (2006), who showed us how the
discourses of native speakerism use similar strategies
to racist ones, and Taylor (2006), who argued that
postcolonial theory can help us analyze power
differences in ELT, I intend to offer a new direction for
studying native speakerism by arguing that ELT
scholars take a stronger interdisciplinary approach by
drawing more fully on race theory. In advocating this
new approach, I will utilize Harris’ (1995) concept of
“Whiteness as property” in order to provide an example
of how drawing from race theory can help us gain a
more complex understanding of the workings of native
speakerism.Paso
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3. Studies on native speakerism
• Phillipson (1992) questioned belief that native speaker
is the best teacher.
• Kramsch (1998) & Cook (1999) argued that
multilingual speakers shouldn’t be compared to
monolingual NES.
• Others have explored from educator’s perspective
(Braine, 1999; Golombek & Jordan, 2005; DePew,
2006).
• Also explored from student angle (Rubin, 1992;
Lindemann, 2002; Timmis, 2002; Butler, 2007)
• Argue for English as an international language (EIL)
(McKay, 2002; Holliday, 2005)El Paso
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4. Need for study on ELT & Race
• “Contrary to the relative absence of discussions on race in
TESOL, other fields such as sociology, anthropology,
education, and composition studies have both extensively
and critically explored issues of race” (Kubota & Lin, 2006,
p. 472).
• Studies like Rubin (1992) and Lindemann (2002) and
Curtis and Romney’s (2006) collection Color, Race, and
English Language Teaching have shown a connection
between a teachers’ race/ethnicity and they way they are
perceived by learners.
• Some exception in in the 2006 special Critical Inquiry in
Language Studies issue on postcolonial approaches to
TESOL (i.e. Motha, Taylor)
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5. Why use race theory in analyzing
difference in ELT?
• “I consider linguistic identities to be
inextricable from racial identities because I
believe Whiteness to be an intrinsic but
veiled element of the construct of
mainstream English” (Motha, 2006, p. 497).
• “dominant ways of talking about race in the
United States persist as templates for
creating arguments about
language” (Shuck, 2006, p. 273).
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6. Why use race theory in analyzing
difference in ELT?
• Reveals how how the inequality
surrounding NES/NNES is, like racial
inequality, socially constructed
• Directs us to the role of legal discourse in
perpetuating inequality
• Helps us investigate how racial and
linguistic prejudice work in tangent to
reinforce societal hierarchies
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7. Theoretical framework
• Epistemic rhetoric: “Discourse creates
realities rather than truths about
realities” (Brummett, 1977).
• Bakhtin: “Any utterance is a link in the chain
of speech communion…” (1986, p. 84)
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8. Constructing racial/linguistic
difference through legal discourse
Cheryl Harris’ (1993) “Whiteness as Property”
• “Because whites could not be enslaved or held as slaves,
the racial line between white and black was extremely
critical; it became a line of protection and demarcation
from the potential threat of commodification, and it
determined the allocation of the benefits of this form of
property. White identity and whiteness were sources of
privilege and protection; their absence meant being the
object of property” (pp. 1720-1).
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9. Constructing racial/linguistic
difference through legal discourse
• Groups like U.S. English pushing official language
policies--attack on ethnic identity (i.e. McKay & Wong,
1996).
• NES teachers as defined by the Korean and
Taiwanese governments:
• “You MUST have citizenship and a valid passport
from one of the following English speaking
countries: Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New
Zealand, South Africa, and the United States…these
requirements are enforced by the Korean Ministry of
Justice (Immigration) and receiving a visa is not
possible if you don’t meet these
requirements” (gone2Korea,El2009).
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10. Constructing racial/linguistic difference
through recruitment discourse
Review of 61 “Asian” job ads on TEFL.com
• 13 no linguistic qualification
• 3 bilingual or English with neutral accent
• 19 NES
• 26 NES from specific countries
– 16 from 7-country Korean/Taiwan standard
– 6 left out South Africa
– 1 left out Ireland
• reflects the findings of Govardhan, Nayar, and Sheorey
(1999): a survey of 237 advertisements found that native
speaker or native-like was the only common requirement
• reveals how the concept of native speaker, like race, is
largely socially constructed
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11. Expectations of whiteness, NES
status
• Jeremy Betham: “Property is nothing but the basis of
expectation consist[ing] in an established expectation, in
the persuasion of being able to draw such and such
advantage from the thing possessed” (as cited in Harris,
1993, p. 1729)
• TEFL training centers advertising “guaranteed jobs” for
NES “teachers.”
• NES teachers often paid more, regardless of qualifications.
• While Korea is expanding its definition of qualified ELT
teachers, NES teachers from inner circle countries with 2
year degrees are treated as ELT teachers from other
countries with 4 year degrees and a teaching license
(Chosun, 2008).
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12. Expectations of whiteness, NES
status
• While NNES teachers armed with an MA in TESOL may
have trouble finding a job, NES teachers are welcomed
with the following:
• “Previous teaching experience or a related major is
not a requirement to teach English in
Korea” (gone2Korea, 2009).
• “The ideal candidate will be someone who works well
in a team, has a positive outlook, likes meeting
people, making friends and has the ability to adapt to
living in a developing country” (TEFL.com)
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13. Right to use and enjoy
Harris wrote,
• “Whiteness can move from being a passive
characteristic as an aspect of identity to an active entity
that…is used to fulfill the will and to exercise power…a
white person ‘used and enjoyed’ whiteness whenever
she took advantage of the privileges accorded white
people simply by virtue of their whiteness” (p. 1734).
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14. Right to use and enjoy
• Despite doing poorly with pop grammar tests during
interviews, I was told I did well.
• http://www.hess.com.tw/careers/english/5takes/
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15. The right to exclude
• Harris wrote,
• “The possessors of whiteness were granted the
legal right to exclude others from the privileges
inhering in whiteness; whiteness became an
exclusive club whose membership was closely and
grudgingly guarded” (p. 1736).
• Economic benefits to inner-circle countries to maintain
ELT authority and dominance (Graddol, 2006).
• Exclusion of NNES teachers from the club of NES
benefits is largely perpetuated by expanding and
outer-circle institutions (Canagarajah, 1999).
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16. Why draw from race theory?
• Pennycook (2001) has explained how applied
linguistics, and to a greater extent, critical applied
linguistics (CAL), are largely interdisciplinary
• According to Pennycook, one of CAL’s primary goals
is “to find ways of mapping micro and macro relations,
ways of understanding a relation between concepts of
society, ideology, global capitalism, colonialism,
education, gender, racism, sexuality, class, and
classroom utterances, translations, conversations,
genres, second language acquisition, media texts” (p.
5).
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17. Why draw from race theory?
• Investigate role of legal discourse
• Piller (2002) & Bashir-Ali (2006) could have
benefited by drawing from theories of “passing.”
• Shuck (2006), drawing from Foucault, has
written: “Dominant ideologies maintain their
hegemonic positions not because they belong
only to people in authority but rather because
they are pervasive in much larger discourse
formations located in a vast array of
communicative practices” (p. 274). Can
enhance our exploration in this area by drawing
from the concept of “everyday racism” (Essed,
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18. Theory of critical negotiation
• From West’s (2002) Signs of Struggle: The rhetorical
politics of difference
• “messy, sprawling, and emotional” and helps “create a
sense of unease” (p. 15).
• Principles
• “recognize[s] the role and effect of emotion during negotiation”
• “understand[s] that negotiation is a co-constitutive process,
that it is at the point of negotiation, of interaction, that meaning
and identity are mutually constituted”
• “realize the importance of power relations of those negotiating”
• “insist[s] on situating negotiation within its larger social and
historical contexts”
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19. Critical negotiation
• 1st: Role of emotion
• Discomfort/defensiveness when discussing race
• 2nd: Meaning and identities are co-constituted
• Realize social construction of NES/NNES categories
• Leads to hybrid identities
• Multilingual, multicultural should be the norm
• Disciplinary hybridity
• 3rd: Recognize power differences
• Need both NNES & NESs working together
• 4th: Situate our discussions in larger contexts
• History of colonial oppression connected with the spread of
English
• Layering of small, localized discourses affect large scale
• Drawing on race theory can teach atusPaso
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about larger contexts

20. Concluding comments
In order to challenge these internalized beliefs and the
power of words like native speaker, we need to expand
our efforts by drawing on new tools of analysis in the
form of theories developed in other fields. By doing so,
we can actively work towards a future in which the
teaching qualifications in our field will be based on
English proficiency determined by international norms,
not native speaker status, and, more importantly,
teaching qualifications. Through doing this, we can
work towards a more egalitarian relationship among
teachers, both native and nonnative speakers, and
better working conditions for all.
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21. References
Braine, G. (1999). From the periphery to the center: One teacher’s journey. In G. Braine (Ed.), Non-
native educators in English language teaching (pp. 15-28). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Butler, Y.G. (2007). How are nonnative-English-speaking teachers perceived by young learners?
TESOL Quarterly, 41(4), 731-755.
Canagarajah, S.(1999). Interrogating the “Native speaker fallacy”: Non-linguistic roots, non-pedagogical
results. In G. Braine (Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp. 77-92).
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cook, V. (1999). Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33(2),
185-209.
Curtis, A. & Romney, M. (2006). Color, race, and English language teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
DePew, K.E. (2006). Different writers, different writing: Preparing international teaching assistants for
instructional literacy. In P.K. Matsuda, C. Ortmeier-Hooper, and X. You (Eds.), The politics of
second language writing: In search of the promised land (pp. 168-187). West Lafayette, IN: Parlor
Press.
Essed, P. (1991). Understanding everyday racism: An interdisciplinary theory. London: Sage
Publications.
Govardhan, A.K., Nayar, B., & Sheorey, R. (1999). Do U.S. MATESOL programs prepare students to
teach abroad? TESOL Quarterly, 33(1), 114-125.
Graddol, D. (2006). English Next: Why global English may mean the end of “English as a Foreign
Language.” London: British Council. University of Texas at El Paso
© The

22. References
Harris, C.I. (1993). Whiteness as property. Harvard law review, 106(8), 1707-1791.
Holliday, A. (2005). The struggle to teach English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Kramsch, C. (1998). The privilege of the intercultural speaker. In Byram, M. & Fleming, M. (Eds)
Language learning in intercultural perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography (pp.
20-35). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kubota, R. & Lin, A. (2006). Race and TESOL: Introduction to concepts and theories. TESOL Quarterly,
40(3), 471-493.
McKay, S.L. (2002). Teaching English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Motha, S. (2006). Racializing ESOL teacher identities in U.S. K-12 public schools. TESOL Quarterly,
40(3), 495-518.
Pennycook, A. (2001). Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Piller, I. (2002). Passing for a native speaker: Identity and success in second language learning. Journal
of Sociolinguistics, 6(2), 179-206. Schell, M. (2008). Colinguals among bilinguals. World Englishes,
27(1), 117-130.
Shuck, G. (2006). Racializing the nonnative English speaker. Journal of Language, Identity, and
Education, 5(4), 259-76.
Thomas, J. (1999). Voices form the periphery: Non-native teachers and issues of credibility. In G.
Braine (Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp. 5-13). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
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23. References
Taylor, L. (2006). Cultural translation and the double movement of difference in learning ‘English as a
second identity.’ Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: An International Journal, 3(2 & 3), 101-130.
van Dijk, T.A. (2002). Denying racism: Elite discourse and racism. In P. Essed & D. T. Goldberg (Eds.),
Race critical theories (pp. 307-324). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
West, T.R. (2002). Signs of struggle. Albany, NY: The State University of New York Press.
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24. Thank you!
If you would download a copy of this
presentation or learn more about my work,
please visit toddruecker.com
If you would like to dialogue more about these
issues, please email me at
tcruecker@miners.utep.edu
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