‘Asians’ and ‘Westerners’: examining the perception of ‘(non-)native’ migrant teachers of English in Thailand

ABSTRACT

Existing research has highlighted the complexity of the discourse surrounding ‘(non-)native speaker’, particularly with regard to how teachers are perceived by learners. This complexity has been compounded by globalisation, which has increased transnational mobility of teachers. Thailand has been particularly affected by this, as its population of local teachers has been complemented by a growing yet highly diverse contingent of migrant teachers. In this paper, we present the results of a study conducted at three secondary schools in Southern Thailand, which used a combination of interviews and focus groups to examine how various local participants in English teaching and learning (teachers, students, parents, administrators) perceived migrant (i.e. non-Thai) English teachers, focussing particularly on how these perceptions used ‘(non-)nativeness’ as a point of reference. Our analysis focusses on two overarching themes, ‘race’ and ‘inequality’, which also invoke links with broader discourses: Firstly, we show that the perceptions of migrant teachers were heavily racialized, with ‘nativeness’ equated with whiteness and Westernness and ‘non-nativeness’ associated with Asianness. Secondly, we find that the participants’ perceptions involved significant reference to inequality, as access to ‘nativeness’ represented a symbolic resource accessible only to learners with sufficient economic capital.

KEYWORDS:

• Migrant teachers
• native-speakerism
• inequality
• Thailand
• race

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 While we acknowledge that these terms are problematic in the sense that they promote a deficit view of multilingualism (see Dewaele 2018), we also found it difficult to avoid them given their continued relevance in academic and professional discourse. In consultation with the editor, we have thus elected to signify their problematic nature by placing them between quotation marks throughout.

2 We use this term here in the broadest possible sense to stress the diversity of the types of mobility available in contemporary ELT to refer to all those who came to Thailand from other countries and are presently involved in teaching English there. This thus includes both short-term and long-term migrants, full-time and part-time employees, and is irrespective of race/ethnicity, country of origin, professional background or experience.

3 Here, we refer to both the ambivalent position of South Africa in geographical categorizations of ‘(N)NS’ as well as to its ambiguous treatment in Thailand, where white SA teachers are often treated as de facto ‘NS’ by employers but are also required by immigration authorities to submit test scores irrespective of their linguistic backgrounds.

4 The data collection procedures described were reviewed and approved by the ethics committee responsible for social science research at the institution where the research was conducted.

5 The letters in each code refer to the school where the example comes from (in this case, school B) and the type of participant (S for student, T for teacher, P for parent, VD for Vice Director and D for Director), while the number identifies the interview (or focus group when marked with a G) where the statement was made.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Prince of Songkla University Graduate School: [Grant Number TEH-AC 028/2017].

Notes on contributors

Luke Jobert Earl Vencer Comprendio

Luke Jobert Earl Vencer Comprendio is currently completing a Master’s degree in Teaching English as an International Language at Prince of Songkla University. He has been teaching English for 6 years and currently works as an English teacher at Patongwittayamulnithi School in Hat Yai.

Kristof Savski

Kristof Savski currently works as a lecturer at Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai, Thailand, and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University (UK). His research links the fields of discourse studies, sociolinguistics and language policy.