Jundong Ma
Just as Ramjattan (2015) mentioned in the paper, ELT is a type of aesthetic job because teachers are expected to look and sound a particular way. As such, nonwhite teachers may experience employment discrimination in the form of racial microaggressions, which are everyday racial slights. This kind of job discrimination can be found everywhere in daily life and more details can be seen in the video below:
As a non-native English-speaking teacher who comes from China, I encountered some job discrimination during my interviews. Instead of caring about my educational background or professional teaching experience, the interviewers pay more attention to my family background and my skin color. Once there was an interviewer told me that she really appreciated my working ability but she would more like to hire a white native speaker to fulfill parents’ expectations—parents have paid a large sum of tuition fee, and they want their children to be “well-educated”(in their opinion this meant being taught by native speakers). I had to admit that, at that time, I was really upset. I was not frustrated with my teaching ability but with the white-privileged society. Though being a native English-speaking teacher does not mean being a professional English teacher, all schools around the world still wait for native English teachers from Canada, the USA, the UK, and New Zealand to teach English. I hope this racial microaggression can be eliminated one day.
Apart from the unfair job discrimination, I would like to talk about some advantages that non-native English-speaking teachers may have. The first advantage that non-native English-speaking teachers own is their abundant professional knowledge. For instance, as an L2 English teacher, I can explain grammar, vocabulary, and articles from a professional learning aspect, not from a native-speaker’s intuition, which may give students a better way to understand. What is more, the second advantage for non-native English teachers is that, as an L2 English teacher, I can understand students’ problems because I once was in their shoes. I know all the confusion and frustration emotion that they may go through during the language learning process, which means I can better encourage learners to carry on their study journey. And I know the language learning points where students may find it easy to make mistakes because I used to make mistakes there. This helps me better understand my students and can facilitate my teaching process as well. As non-native English teachers, we should realize our unique advantages and show them during future interview opportunities .
Question:
What action can the government take to help solve the job discrimination against non-native English-speaking teachers?
References:
Ramjattan, V. A. (2015). Lacking the right aesthetic. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 34(8), 692–704. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-03-2015-0018
TEFL TESOL Online course & Certification. (2021, December 22). Discrimination of non-native speaking teachers of English [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hotiF3OuHU4
