English, identity and the privileging and marginalizing of transculturality

Abstract

The English language has been promoted as an international language without ideologies, culture, and judgment that can be molded and, therefore, belongs to all. However, there is also the idea of the idealized native speaker, a theoretical concept born from sociology of language that has become naturalized and realized making the concept very problematic. Although education has connected people on not just the local scale but also the global scale, English language programs continue to differentiate between native speakers and non-native speakers. Using an autoethnographic methodological approach and feminist standpoint theory, we, a perceived native speaker and a perceived non-native speaker, examine the ways transculturality in English language teaching is privileged and marginalized based on the instructors’ native speaking or non-native speaking status. Therefore, we will explore the ways in which our cultural backgrounds, nationalities, linguistic abilities, academic backgrounds, and gender connect intimately with our professional and personal identities within globalized world Englishes and how we navigate stated and unstated politics. Finally, the perception of race and nationality is explored in connection to accent in the form of speaking ability, teaching, and competency.