KnE Social Sciences

ISSN: 2518-668X

The latest conference proceedings on humanities, arts and social sciences.

Register for Content Alerts
Navigation

Discrimination Behind Nest and Nnest Dichotomy in ELT Pofesionalism

Published date: Apr 19 2018

Journal Title: KnE Social Sciences

Issue title: The 1st Annual International Conference on Language and Literature (AICLL)

Pages: 741–755

DOI: 10.18502/kss.v3i4.1982

Authors:
Abstract:

This paper argues that the dichotomy between native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) has resulted in discriminatory practices in English language teaching (ELT) professionalism. Reviewing four studies investigating discrimination in ELT industry in some Asian countries, this literature review reveals that most English as a foreign/second language (EFL/ESL) institutions give preferential treatment to NESTs based on some factors. Nativeness and nationality are among the top factors of discrimination in English teaching positions. Discrepancy in required academic qualification and income also prove that NNESTs have always been discriminated and marginalized in ELT employment. Furthermore, it is also found that racist policy applied by some institutions recruiting White English teachers solely because of their race and privilege. Finally, it can be concluded that some governments and institutions’ policies in recruiting English teachers have played a big role in perpetuating this discrimination against NNESTs by maintaining the ideology of NESTs as superior teachers in theories and practices of ELT.

 

Keywords: Discrimination, native speakerism, ELT professionalism

References:

[1] Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.


[2] Amin, N. (1999). Minority women teachers of ESL: Negotiating white English. In G. Braine (Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp. 93-104). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.


[3] Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2

Download
HTML
Cite
Share
Crossref Cited-by logo

10

Hector Sebastian Alvarez (2025)

City of Buenos Aires’s ELT landscape and its resilience against native-speakerism, Cogent Education

Volume: 12, Issue: 1

10.1080/2331186X.2024.2445367

Fateme Chahkandi (2025)

Facts and Fallacies About English Language Teaching: Evidence From the Literature on Job Advertisements, Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics

Volume: 48, Issue: 2, First Page: 302

10.1515/CJAL-2025-0206

Hector Sebastian Alvarez (2023)

iTutorGroup: A case study of covert native-speakerism underneath a social justice façade, McGill Journal of Education

Volume: 57, Issue: 2, First Page: 54

10.7202/1106308ar

Amirotul Mukminah Suherman, Vidya Mandarani (2021)

Analysis of Students' Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Narrative Text Faced by Ninth Grade Junior High School Students, Academia Open

Volume: 4

10.21070/acopen.4.2021.3032

Muneer Hezam Alqahtani, Ehsan Namaziandost (2022)

Blame the Message Senders Not the Messenger: The Defence Case of the English “Native Speaker” Teacher, Education Research International

Volume: 2022, First Page: 1

10.1155/2022/3926977

Nashid Nigar, Alex Kostogriz, Imona Hossain (2025)

Hybrid professional identities: exploring non-native English-speaking teachers’ lived experiences through the Cyborg Manifesto, Pedagogy, Culture & Society

Volume: 33, Issue: 5, First Page: 1745

10.1080/14681366.2024.2409731

Adriana Montoya, Doris Correa (2024)

Discriminatory Practices Against Non-Native English Speaker Teachers in Colombia’s Language Centers: A Multimodal Study, Profile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development

Volume: 26, Issue: 1, First Page: 117

10.15446/profile.v26n1.105427

Sahril Nur, Ismail Anas, Reski Pilu, Nurfajriah Basri (2022)

Local English teachers’ voices from a marginalized lens: Inequality practices and identity construction in the workplace, JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature)

Volume: 7, Issue: 1, First Page: 167

10.33369/joall.v7i1.20418

Ting Fang, Li-Yi Wang, Tzu-Bin Lin, Chia-Kai Huang (2022)

To stay or leave: a multiple-case study of the retention of native English-speaking teachers in Taiwan, Asia Pacific Education Review

Volume: 23, Issue: 2, First Page: 325

10.1007/s12564-022-09756-7