Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Original VS Clone: Which One to Buy?

It was until recently that decision makers at several English language institutes in Saudi Arabia viewed English language teachers as either "native" or "nonnative". A native speaker was generally perceived is someone who is "white" and from an IC country. Regardless of educational and academic background, those speakers were hired for the sole reason that they were white and spoke English. That approach led to no recognizing English speakers of "color" even if they were born, raised, and educated in an IC country. As a result, students did not recognizing other variations of English and began profiling speakers according to race and color.

Nowadays, there is a movement towards hiring qualified English language teacher regardless of the ethnic background. A good example is the English Language Institute at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. As of 2010 The institute has more than 200 teachers from more than 20 countries including the U.S, Canada, U.K, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Syria, Morocco, South Africa, and many more. Students now have access to many varieties of English and recognize them.

It was quite shocking to hear that some public figures still think that English should have only on variety and that other varieties should not be recognized while the number of speakers of English in the OC and EC countries is far more than of that in the IC countries.
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2 comments:

  1. Sherry's-WEMay 26, 2010 at 1:57 PM

    Hi Shadi,
    I enjoyed your post. I'm glad that at least some people in Saudi have seen the light and are changing their thinking away from from the white NS. It is so important that the quality of teachers be the main focus rather than the nationality.

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  2. Paule_World EnglishesMay 26, 2010 at 2:09 PM

    It's great to hear that as a field and a profession, we may be making headway in moving away from the idealizing of the native speaker and that is starting to translate into more equality in hiring. I'm definitely interesting this issue of hiring preference. I like hearing about this expansion of opportunities to teachers from more backgrounds and varieties of English. However, I wonder how long we have to wait or how much more work needs to be done to expand that opportunity and equal status to local non-native English teachers? Hiring of native and non-native teachers from outside of the teaching context is a great step but I wonder when local English teachers can receive the same respect, the local knowledge is just as valid and valuable?

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