The Department of Applied Linguistics is pleased to announce the first talk of the semester. This talk will be held on October 17 at 4 pm in the APLING conference room. This event will be a great opportunity to meet, interact, and learn from the work of Dr. Alshammari, who is our visiting scholar this year. Check the abstract of the talk below.

Abstract:

While there has been an increasing number of second language programs taught by both native and non-native speaker teachers, the NS fallacy that native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) are inherently better teachers is still dominant, hindering the construction of the professional identities of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs). Several studies have explored the (re)construction of the NNESTs’ professional identity in their own country; however, little attention has been given to the professional identity of expatriate NESTs and NNESTs. Giving the fact that English has become the world’s language and multilingualism has become the norm in the global society, the NEST/NNEST dichotomy needs to be reconceptualized by taking into account the multiple identities of the English teachers within and beyond the NEST and NNEST categories. This qualitative study explores the discursive negotiation of the professional identity of three groups of English teachers: NESTs, Saudi NNESTs and NNESTs from overseas. I used semi-structured interviews with 18 participants in the Preparatory Year Programs in two Saudi universities. The study indicates that the three groups of teachers experienced ongoing negotiation of different and multiple discourses in their job based on their individual experiences and their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The findings suggest that they constructed “Self” and “Other” using different labels and categories to place themselves in a powerful position in the program.