EFL Learner's Self-concept: Repercussions of Native Speakerism

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: Jul 1, 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21071/ij21ce.v5i1.5796
Keywords:
Native speakerism, EFL learners’ self concept, self-theory, EFL proficiency.

Main Article Content

Christian Fallas Escobar
Doctoral Student Culture, Literacy and Language Department of Bilingual-Bicultural Studies University of Texas at San Antonio

Abstract

In Costa Rican universities, English as a foreign language (EFL) programs are often filled with practices and discourses that idealize native speakers of English and construct them as the models to follow. In these programs, instructors’ overreliance on native speaker proficiency models create unrealistic standards that can misinform EFL learners’ views of their proficiency as English speakers. As these students ‘fail’ to align their present L2 proficiency to the ideal praised in the classroom, they develop negative self-concepts, which lead them to characterize their proficiency as deficient and incomplete. In this paper, I examine tacitly validated practices and circulating narratives in two academic EFL programs in a public Costa Rican university regarding learners’ expected EFL proficiency and problematize the repercussions these unspoken expectations may have for these students’ overall self-concept as L2 speakers. In light of the results that I discuss herein, I advocate for the abandonment of the native speakerism trend that still prevails in the EFL programs in question and for the construction of EFL teaching practices that provide EFL learners with the validation they deserve for their expanding linguistic repertoire. 

En las universidades costarricenses, los programas de inglés como lengua extranjera están plagados de prácticas y discursos que idealizan al nativo hablante del inglés y lo posicionan como elmodelo a seguir. En estos programas, el uso constante y exclusivo de modelos nativo hablantes por parte de los profesores crean estándares poco reales que pueden distorsionar la percepción que los estudiantes tienen sobre sus capacidades en el idioma inglés. Esto debido a que cuando los estudiantes no logran alinear sus destrezas en la segunda lengua a la proficiencia que implícitamente se idealiza en la clase, estos desarrollan un auto-concepto negativo que los lleva a describir sus propias destrezas lingüísticas como deficientes e incompletas. Es por eso que en este estudio, me doy a la tarea de analizar narrativas circulantes en dos programas académicos de inglés como lengua extrajera de una universidad pública en Costa Rica, en cuanto al nivel de competencia en inglés que los estudiantes perciben se espera de ellos al terminar el programa, y problematizo las repercusiones que estas expectativas implícitas tienen en el auto-concepto de los discentes. A la luz de los resultados que aquí presento, abogo por la erradicación de la tendencia de idealizar al nativo hablante del idioma inglés que aún prevalece in los programas en cuestión y por la construcción de prácticas pedagógicas que validen las destrezas que los estudiantes desarrollan en programas de inglés como lengua extranjera. 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Fallas Escobar, C. (2019). EFL Learner’s Self-concept: Repercussions of Native Speakerism. International Journal for 21st Century Education, 5(1), 19–35. https://doi.org/10.21071/ij21ce.v5i1.5796
Issue
Vol. 5 No. 1 (2018)
Section
Artículos
Author Biography

Christian Fallas Escobar, Doctoral Student Culture, Literacy and Language Department of Bilingual-Bicultural Studies University of Texas at San Antonio

Christian Fallas Escobar holds a B.A. in English Teaching, an M.A. in Second Languages and Cultures and a Certificate in Teacher Training from the School of International Training. He has been an EFL instructor for over twelve years and currently works in the Escuela de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje at the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica, where he teaches grammar, oral communication, composition, pronunciation, and introductory courses to applied linguistics. Among his areas of interest are critical thinking, reflective teaching, multiculturalism & multilingualism, translanguaging, and the intersection between economics, politics and EFL. He has co-authored a textbook for EFL and several papers dealing with translanguaging in EFL contexts and neoliberal discourses and their connection to the rise of EFL around the world.  He is currently pursuing doctoral studies in culture, literacy and language at the Department of Bilingual-Bicultural Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

References

Arnaiz, P., & Guillen, F. (December 01, 2011). Self-concept in university-level FL learners. International Journal of the Humanities, 9(4), 81-92.

Cook, V. (1999). Going Beyond the Native Speaker in Language Teaching. TESOL Quarterly , 33(2), 185-209.

Costa Ribas, F. (2009). The role of self-concepts in students’ motivation in the Brazilian EFL context. Lenguagem e Ensino, 12(2), 463-483.

Creese, A. &. Blackledge, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching? The Modern Language Journal, 94, 103-115.

Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and researching motivation. England: Longman.

Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. London: Longman.

Gee, J. P. (1990). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. London, England: Falmer Press.

Gee, J. P. (2011). How to do discourse analysis: A toolkit. New York: Routledge.

Genç, G., Kuluşaklı, E., & Aydın, S. (February 19, 2016). Exploring EFL Learners’ Perceived Self-efficacy and Beliefs on English Language Learning. The Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(2), 53-68.

Grosjean, François (1996). Living with two languages and two cultures. In I. Parasnis (Ed.), Cultural and Language Diversity and the Deaf Experience (20-36). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Han, Z. (2004). Fossilization: five central issues. International Journal of Applied Linguistics , 14 (2), 212-242.

Higgins, C. (March 07, 2004). "Ownership" of English in the Outer Circle: An Alternative to the NS-NNS Dichotomy. TESOL Quarterly: a Journal for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and of Standard English As a Second Dialect, 37(4), 615-644.

Higgins, E. (1987). Self-discrepancy theory. Psychological Review, 94(3), 319-340.

Kachru, B. B. (1992). Models for non-native Englishes. In B. B. Kachru (Ed.), The other tongue (2nd ed., pp. 48–74). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

May, S. (2014). The Multilingual Turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL and Bilingual Education. London: Routledge.

Mignolo, W. (2009). Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and Decolonial Freedom. Theory, Culture and

Society, 26(7-8), 159-181. doi:10.1177/0263276409349275

Moussu, L., & Llurda, E. (2008). Non-native English-speaking English language teachers: History and research. Language Teaching, 41(3), 315-348.

Ortega, L. (2014). Ways forward for a bi/multilingual turn in SLA. In S. May (Ed.), The Multilingual Turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL and Bilingual Education (pp. 32-53). London: Routledge.

Sayer, P. (2013). Translanguaging, TexMex, and Bilingual Pedagogy: Emergent Bilinguals Learning through the Vernacular. TESOL Quarterly, 47(1), 63-88. doi:10.1002/tesq.53

Schmitz, J. (2009). On the notions “native”/”nonnative”: a dangerous dichotomy for World Englishes?. Universidade Federal de Goiás.