Abstract:
The unprecedented growth of English and arrival of English as an International Language (EIL) has generated a new fledged argument about English language teachers‟ role and status around the world. To date, much of the debate on the native/non-native distinction in EIL settings and factors contributing to sharpen distinctions has remained unsettled. This gap motivated this study on the English teachers‟ grasp of their role and their stance in the EIL setting of Iran. For this purpose, this study adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore the nature of the English teachers‟ attitudes through an EIL scale and teachers‟ narrative accounts through Telegram groups. The three-level positioning analysis (Bamberg, 1997) of English teachers‟ narrative accounts contradicted their perceptive evaluations of their status, as non-native English teachers. The results proved that, despite highlights of blurred distinctions, English teachers in Iran still believe that English belongs to the native speakers and position native speaker teachers as better models for pedagogical practices. The results have implications for teachers‟ beliefs and the role of teacher education programs
Machine summary:
Beliefs about Non-Native Teachers in English as an International Language: A Positioning Analysis of Iranian Language Teachers’ Voices Zia Tajeddin 1*, Samaneh Eslamdoost 2 1 Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Iran 2 Ph. D.
A prevailing mentality in EIL settings prioritize native-speakers as superior models of English language teaching practice due to their linguistic capabilities (Braine, 2010; Kirkpatrick, 2010).
A number of studies put forward some critical arguments signifying the non-native English teachers‟ mentalities and attitudes toward their standpoint in EIL settings, such as: non-native speaker teachers‟ perception of their source model of teaching as less reliable and accepting the native speaker as a source of authority (Tsui & Bunton, 2000), non-native speaker teachers‟ reliance on an external norm rather than their domestic sources (Sifakis, 2004), non-native speaker teachers‟ insecurity about their language proficiency and their acceptance of native speaker teachers as ideal models of language teaching (Llurda, 2008; Llurda & Huguet, 2003), and non-native speaker teachers‟ preference for conformity to native linguistic norms and disapproving non- native norms to be transferred in English communications (Tajeddin, Alemi, & Pashmforoosh, 2018).
If teachers lack a proper understanding of the spread and current use of English, an EIL perspective can be appropriately implemented and reflected in the language teachers‟ practice, thus affecting curriculum (Brown, 1995; Burns, 2005; Kachru, 1984; Matsuda, 2005, 2006, 2009; McKay, 2002).