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Beyond Native-Speakerism
Beyond Native-Speakerism: Current Explorations and Future Visions
By Stephanie Ann Houghton, Damian J. Rivers, Kayoko Hashimoto
© 2018 – Routledge
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This volume problematizes native-speakerism in language learning and teaching, critically engaging with the issue of native-speakerism as a language-based form of prejudice affecting language teachers. Bringing theoretical discussion together with empirical data, Houghton, Rivers and Hashimoto document past traditions and current perspectives surrounding the native-speaker criterion, and explore native-speakerism across languages and contexts. The authors make the case that the category of "native speaker" is intended to satisfy, maintain and enhance certain agendas and beliefs connected to nation-state affiliation in relation to English language education. Looking specifically at the context of language teaching in Japan, the authors provide a sociohistorical deconstruction of Japan’s relationship with the "native speaker" and consider educational policy/practice in the context of native-speakerism. They examine how dominant social representations perpetuate native-speakerism, and argue that individual teacher narratives can shed light on the consequences of native-speakerism.
Towards Post-Native-Speakerism
By Stephanie Ann Houghton, Kayoko Hashimoto (Editors)
© 2018 – Springer
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This book probes for a post-native-speakerist future. It explores the nature of (English and Japanese) native-speakerism in the Japanese context, and possible grounds on which language teachers could be employed if native-speakerism is rejected (i.e., what are the language teachers of the future expected to do, and be, in practice?). It reveals the problems presented by the native-speaker model in foreign language education by exploring individual teacher-researcher narratives related to workplace experience and language-based inclusion/exclusion, as well as Japanese native-speakerism in the teaching of Japanese as a foreign language. It then seeks solutions to the problems by examining the concept of post-native-speakerism in relation to multilingual perspectives and globalisation generally, with a specific focus on education.
Native-Speakerism in Japan
By Stephanie Ann Houghton, Damian J. Rivers
© 2013 – Multilingual Matters
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The relative status of native and non-native speaker language teachers within educational institutions has long been an issue worldwide but until recently, the voices of teachers articulating their own concerns have been rare. Existing work has tended to focus upon the position of non-native teachers and their struggle against unfavourable comparisons with their native-speaker counterparts. However, more recently, native-speaker language teachers have also been placed in the academic spotlight as interest grows in language-based forms of prejudice such as ‘native-speakerism’ – a dominant ideology prevalent within the Japanese context of English language education. This innovative volume explores wide-ranging issues related to native-speakerism as it manifests itself in the Japanese and Italian educational contexts to show how native-speaker teachers can also be the targets of multifarious forms of prejudice and discrimination in the workplace.
Intercultural Dialogue in Practice
By Stephanie Ann Houghton
© 2013 – Multilingual Matters
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The term intercultural dialogue has become a buzzword at policy level, but there is a pressing need to synchronise the terminology of policymakers with that of academics. An overarching aim of this book is to explore the wide-ranging terminology relevant to intercultural dialogue in order to promote clearer consideration of the underlying issues. More specifically, this book reports the findings of a research project conducted in Japan that brought teaching practice to bear upon some of the main conflicting theoretical perspectives on how value judgment should be managed in foreign language education. At the heart of this issue lies the management of prejudice, which is a key dynamic in intercultural dialogue that brings many other factors into play.
Social Identities and Multiple Selves in Foreign Language Education
By Stephanie Ann Houghton, Damian J. Rivers
© 2013 – Bloomsbury Publishing
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Within foreign language education contexts across the globe, inadequate attention has been paid to documenting the dynamics of identity development, negotiation and management. This book looks at these dynamics in specific relation to otherness, in addition to attitudinal and behavioural overtones created through use of the term 'foreign' (despite its position as an integral marker in language acquisition discourse). This book argues that individual identities are multidimensional constructs that gravitate around a hub of intricate social networks of multimodal intergroup interaction. The chapters pursue a collective desire to move the notion of identity away from theoretical abstraction and toward the lived experiences of foreign language teachers and students. While the identities entangled with these interactions owe a significant measure of their existence to the immediate social context, they can also be actively developed by their holders. The collection of chapters within this book demonstrate how foreign language education environments (traditional and non-traditional) are ideal locations for the development of a sophisticated repertoire of discursive strategies used in the formulation, navigation, expression and management of social identities and multiple selves.
Critical Cultural Awareness: Managing Stereotypes through Intercultural (Language) Education
By Stephanie Ann Houghton, Yumiko Furumura, Maria Lebedko, Song Li
© 2013 – Cambridge Scholars Publishing
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In a rapidly globalizing world, one of the most challenging barriers to be overcome is the stereotype. This book aims to promote understanding of the nature of stereotypes, and to suggest ways in which teachers can manage them by developing critical cultural awareness as an intrinsic part of the intercultural communicative competence of their students.
Part 1 of the book explores ways of defining, eliciting and illustrating stereotypes from theoretical standpoints. Part 2 showcases ways of addressing stereotypes through intercultural (language) education to provide teachers with a firm platform for the practical application of their knowledge and skills when attempting to manage stereotypes in the classroom.
Developing Criticality in Practice Through Foreign Language Education
by Stephanie Houghton and Etsuko Yamada
© 2012 – Peter Lang
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Many universities have adopted criticality as a general aim of higher education, in order to meet the demands of an increasingly globalised world. But what is criticality, and how does it develop in practice? This book explores the concept in detail and considers how it can be systematically developed in practical ways through foreign language education. Taking a practice-first rather than a theory-first approach, the book presents two case studies based on action research in order to investigate criticality development through foreign language education. One study was conducted in beginner level Japanese language classes at a British university by a Japanese teacher-researcher, and the other was conducted in upper-intermediate English language classes at a Japanese university by a British teacher-researcher. The two studies illuminate the complex experiences of students and teachers as criticality starts to develop in both planned and unplanned ways, from beginner-level to more advanced levels of foreign language learning. The authors also suggest a range of practical teaching approaches which can be used to develop criticality through targeted instruction.
Becoming Intercultural: Inside and Outside the Classroom
By Yau Tsai, Stephanie Ann Houghton
© 2010 – Cambridge Scholars Publishing
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As people move into the new era of the twenty-first century, they will have more and more opportunities to communicate and interact with others using foreign languages. While this will naturally generate wide-ranging intercultural experience, people may not be alert to it in everyday life, and teachers may not know how to address the issues that arise. This book starts by exploring what it means to be intercultural from different theoretical standpoints, before contrasting ways in which people do (or do not) become intercultural in both tutored and untutored ways, inside and outside the classroom. The main purpose of this book is to introduce the concept of interculturality, to examine how it can emerge in an unplanned way and to consider ways in which it can be more systematically addressed through education, particularly through foreign language education.
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