You Know English, so Why Don’t You Teach?” Language Ideologies and Returnees Becoming English Language Teachers in Mexico

ABSTRACT

Return migration from the United States to Mexico has been increasing in the last decade. Research reports that many returnees, who are English dominant, drop out of school to look for work in call centers and transnational companies (Anderson, 2015). Others pursue higher education in English-based programs such as those for becoming English language teachers (Rivas Rivas, 2013). This article explores what role language ideologies have in the decision making of three returnees to pursue a degree in English language teaching (ELT) and how such language ideologies inform the participants’ bilingual identities and teaching practices. Findings suggest that while some ideologies held by participants and hiring entities in Mexico, such as linguistic imperialism and linguistic purism, give students an advantage in the workforce, they also generate a sense of otherness that can create barriers to social integration and implicit effects on how they view their language teaching capacities and practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• EFL
• ELT
• identities
• language ideologies
• Mexican returnees

Funding

This study was funded by the SEP (Secretaria de Educación Pública) through the PRODEP program (Programa para el Desarrollo Profesional Docente) in which three universities (two public Mexican universities and one American public university) collaborated.

Notes

¹ The word DREAMers is used to describe undocumented immigrant youth who were brought to the United States as children but have lived and studied in the United States and, in many cases, identify as American. The name is derived from The DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), a bill in Congress to grant legal status to these undocumented youths.

² Oscar is currently pursuing his MA degree in Mexico. (Updated in 2017.)

³ Marcos began teaching English to children at a private language center in January 2017.