Native-Speakerism in Japan

Intergroup Dynamics in Foreign Language Education

Edited by Stephanie Ann Houghton, Assoc. Prof. Damian J. Rivers

Publication date:

19 February 2013

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781847698698

The relative status of native and non-native speaker language teachers within educational institutions has long been an issue worldwide but until recently, the voices of teachers articulating their own concerns have been rare. Existing work has tended to focus upon the position of non-native teachers and their struggle against unfavourable comparisons with their native-speaker counterparts. However, more recently, native-speaker language teachers have also been placed in the academic spotlight as interest grows in language-based forms of prejudice such as ‘native-speakerism’ – a dominant ideology prevalent within the Japanese context of English language education. This innovative volume explores wide-ranging issues related to native-speakerism as it manifests itself in the Japanese and Italian educational contexts to show how native-speaker teachers can also be the targets of multifarious forms of prejudice and discrimination in the workplace.

Acknowledgements

Stephanie A. Houghton and Damian J. Rivers: Introduction: Redefining Native-Speakerism

PART 1 NATIVE-SPEAKERISM: SHIFTING TO A POSTMODERN PARADIGM

1. Adrian Holliday: ‘Native Speaker’ Teachers and Cultural Belief

PART 2 ‘NATIVE SPEAKER’ TEACHERS IN WORKPLACE CONFLICT

2. David Petrie: (Dis)Integration of Mother Tongue Teachers in Italian Universities: Human Rights Abuses and the Quest for Equal Treatment in the European Single Market

3. Kirk Masden: Kumamoto General Union vs. The Prefectural University of Kumamoto: Reviewing the Decision Rendered by the Kumamoto District Court

4. Stephanie A. Houghton: The Overthrow of the Foreign Lecturer Position, and its Aftermath

5. Damian J. Rivers: Institutionalized Native-Speakerism: Voices of Dissent and Acts of Resistance

6. Joe Geluso: Negotiating a Professional Identity: Non-Japanese Teachers of English in Pre-Tertiary Education in Japan

7. Joseph Falout: Forming Pathways of Belonging: Social Inclusion for Teachers Abroad

PART 3 EMPLOYMENT POLICIES AND PATTERNS IN JAPANESE TERTIARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

8. Ryoko Tsuneyoshi: Communicative English in Japan and ‘Native Speakers of English’

9. Blake E. Hayes: Hiring Criteria for Japanese University English-Teaching Faculty

10. Salem Kim Hicks: On The (Out)Skirts of TESOL Networks of Homophily: Substantive Citizenship in Japan

11. Kayoko Hashimoto: The Construction of the ‘Native Speaker’ in Japan’s Educational Policies For TEFL

12. Evan Samuel Heimlich: The Meaning of Japan’s Role of Professional Foreigner

PART 4 NATIVE-SPEAKERISM AS A MULTI-FACETED AND CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL PHENOMENON

13. Glenn Toh: Scrutinizing the Native Speaker as Referent, Entity and Project

14. Ryuko Kubota and Donna Fujimoto: Racialized Native Speakers: Voices of Japanese American English Language Professionals

15. Jennifer Yphantides: Native-Speakerism through English-Only Policies: Teachers, Students and the Changing Face of Japan

PART 5 NATIVE-SPEAKERISM FROM SOCIO-HISTORICAL VIEWPOINTS

16. Robert M. McKenzie: Changing Perceptions? A Variationist Sociolinguistic Perspective on Native Speaker Ideologies and Standard English in Japan

17. Philip Seargeant: Ideologies of Nativism and Linguistic Globalisation

18. Martine Derivry-Plard: The Native Speaker Language Teacher: Through Time and Space

Is the English Native Speaker a political or a linguistic concept? Native Speakerism in Japan persuades us that it is political. Houghton and Rivers have assembled a powerful group of ELT professionals with first-hand experience of Japan and Italy who argue convincingly that native speakerism always has racist and gendered overtones.