Cultural awareness through linguicism? Questioning the roles of native English speakers in Bogota, Colombia

ABSTRACT

Through recent educational initiatives that incorporate native English speakers (NESs) in achieving English proficiency, Colombia has seen an increase in NESs working as teachers or teaching assistants. This interpretive study uses qualitative methods to understand how NESs stimulate intercultural exchanges and awareness between Colombians and English-speaking foreigners; it looks specifically at private and public universities (formal spaces), and cafe-bars where language exchanges occur weekly (informal spaces) throughout Bogotá, Colombia. It finds that, essentialized ideas of both Anglophone and Latino cultures, dominant in such spaces, result in the promotion of stereotypes, exotification, and the privileging of NESs from specific countries and phenotypes over others by both NESs and Colombian language learners (CLLs). This study relates linguicism, or linguistic discrimination, as a factor that inhibits the potential for cultural awareness promoted through the use of NESs. The construction of an idealized, white NES delegitimizes non-Western Anglophone contexts, and upholds hegemonic standards of American and British English and cultures taught within English learning spaces. This places non-native English speakers and teachers in subaltern positions. Still, based on participant observations and interviews, it is evident that with intercultural training, NESs can assist in debunking preconceived, normative ideas about the English-speaking world.

En Colombia se han incrementado las iniciativas educativas que incorporan al hablante nativo de inglés (NESs) como profesor o auxiliar constituyendo una herramienta importante en la profundización del aprendizaje del idioma. Esta investigación interpretativa usa métodos cualitativos para entender la implementación del NES en los intercambios interculturales entre colombianos y extranjeros. La investigación se lleva a cabo en universidades públicas y privadas (espacios formales) e café-bares en dónde hay intercambios de idiomas (espacios informales) en Bogotá, Colombia. Aunque estos intercambios destacan el aprendizaje de aspectos culturales, los NESs y los colombianos que están aprendiendo inglés terminan promoviendo estereotipos, exotificación, y el privilegio de algunos NESs. Este estudio sitúa el lingüicismo como un factor que inhibe la consciencia cultural que se puede impulsar a través del NES. La visión de un NES blanco e idealizado, deslegitima los contextos angloparlantes que no son occidentales, y mantiene los estándares hegemónicos de inglés americano y británico, permitiendo la parcialización de los aspectos culturales anglófonos. Este fenómeno pone en posición subalterna a quienes no son hablantes nativos de inglés ni educadores. Sin embargo, se evidencia que con más capacitación intercultural, los NESs podrían ayudar a desmitificar ideas normativas y preconcebidas sobre el mundo Angloparlante.

KEYWORDS:

• Linguistic imperialism
• native speakerisms
• native English speaker
• interculturality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Cristine Khan has an MSc in Migration Studies and Social Cohesion from the University of Amsterdam and the University College of Dublin through a joint degree Erasmus Mundus program and a BA in Sociology from Wesleyan University. Originally from New York City, she arrived to Bogotá in 2013 as a Fulbright grantee, working as an English Language Assistant. She returned in 2016 to work as an Assistant Professor and Researcher within the Bilingual Education department at ÚNICA. Her areas of research are cultural identity, postcoloniality, migrations, ethnicity, and intercultural relations, influenced by her hometown and experiences abroad.