“I may sound like a native speaker…but I’m not”: identities of Korean English teachers with border-crossing experience

ABSTRACT

This study examines the identities of Korean English teachers who have lived in various English-speaking countries but now serve as certified public school teachers in Korea. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with seven teachers and analysed via critical discourse analysis. Despite being rated as near-native, the teachers with transnational experience still undervalued their English proficiency, possibly because they compared their proficiency to that of native speakers. They were also found to place emphasis on nativelike pronunciation, particularly American pronunciation. They classified themselves as non-native speakers, stating that they would never be close to native speakers due to innate factors such as nationality or race. The skewed preference towards American English and native speakership was found to be heavily influenced by the socio-cultural ideologies embedded in institutional systems in Korea. These findings reveal the underlying ideologies of English and native speakership in Korea, which highlights the importance of considering teacher’s perceptions of their identities in designing teacher training programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher identities
• native speakership
• transnationalism
• teacher training

Notes

1. Applicants for English language teaching study four subjects: general English, linguistics, literature and SLA/teaching methods.

2. https://casemed.case.edu/registrar/pdfs/Scale_ILR.pdf

3. “Capitalisation” refers to syllable stress.

4. Gyopo (교포, 僑胞) refers to overseas Koreans. Here, it refers specifically to ethnic Koreans born in the United States.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the research fund of Hanyang University [HY-201400000001030].

Notes on contributors

Mun Woo Lee

Mun Woo Lee is an Associate Professor at the Department of English Education, Hanyang University. She has published a number of research articles in various international journals focusing on language and identity and critical discourse analysis.

Sung Yeon Kim

Sung Yeon Kim is a Professor in the Department of English Education at Hanyang University. Her research interests include teacher education, language policy, and computer-assisted language learning.