NNS and Invisible Barriers in ELT
George Braine
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
In a delightful article in The New Yorker, the Indian-born doctor
Abraham Verghese recalls an incident which occurred soon after his arrival
in the United States. Emboldened by his medical abilities and high scores
in the required examinations, Verghese is confident of obtaining an internship
at a "Plymouth Rock" hospital affiliated to a prestigious medical
school. However, a more experienced compatriot warns him that these hospitals
"have never taken a foreign medical graduate" and advises Verghese
"not even to bother with that kind of place." Instead, he is
told to apply to more humble "Ellis Island" hospitals, those
situated in inner-cities and rural areas, which American doctors avoid.
"We are" Verghese's compatriot continues, "like a transplanted
organ--lifesaving and desperately needed, but rejected because we are
foreign tissue. But, as they say in America, tough .... ."
Although many foreign medical graduates eventually get internships, filling
positions that Americans refuse to accept, NNS English teachers are less
fortunate in finding employment. What chances do foreigners have in a
market glutted with American teachers willing to accept even low-paying
adjunct jobs with heavy workloads? Further, as Alexander Jenin's frank
and timely complaint shows, for many NNS English teachers, qualifications,
ability, and experience are of little help in the job market.
Especially at the Masters degree level, where most ELT jobs are restricted
to intensive English programs, few NNS have succeeded in breaking the
unwritten rule "No NNS need apply." Despite the TESOL organization's
explicit opposition to hiring practices that discriminate against NNS,
most intensive program administrators (with some notable exceptions) do
not hire NNS. In fact, some administrators have openly stated so at professional
conferences and job interviews.
The most frequent excuse for this discrimination is that ESL students
prefer to being taught by NS. About ten years ago, despite resistance
from NS colleagues, I was hired to teach part-time in an intensive English
program. About two weeks after classes began, two students complained
about my accent and requested transfers to classes taught by NS. Some
ESL students naively subscribe to the native-speaker fallacy--that the
ideal English teacher is a NS. This belief stems mainly from their frustration
with incompetent, barely proficient English teachers in their own countries,
and is especially evident in intensive English programs, in which these
newly arrived students enroll. When I later taught at a US university,
ESL students flocked to my first year and advanced writing classes, relishing
the support of fellow ESL students and a NNS teacher, who they said would
better understand their language problems.
Another frequently cited reason for not hiring NNS English teachers is
the complex legal process that employers must go through in order to recruit
foreigners. For instance, the Immigration and Naturalization Service requires
proof that by hiring the foreigner ("alien," in immigration
jargon), the employer is not depriving an American citizen of employment.
Despite this complicated and sometimes frustrating process, most intensive
program administrators are also members of NAFSA, an organization which
assists them with current immigration procedures. Further, most foreign
employees are willing to bear the legal cost of the process, with an army
of immigration lawyers competing for their business!
Perhaps the main reason is never explicitly stated but nevertheless apparent.
A fairly recent phenomenon in Western academia is the increasing presence
of foreigners, as teachers, researchers, and scholars, in almost every
discipline, including ELT. Although this is only to be expected--there
are at least four NNS to every native-speaker of English, it is naturally
resented when scarce jobs are threatened. Many administrators and teachers
appear to view ELT as the last domain of the NS, to be defended at any
cost. This attitude is highly ironic, considering the professions' strident
championing of multiculturalism, diversity, and other sociopolitical causes,
often on behalf of ESL students and immigrants. Although ESL students
are praised and admired for the multiculturalism and diversity they bring
into language classes, NNS English teachers, who can also contribute their
rich multicultural, multilingual experiences, are often barred from the
same classes. Paradoxically, NNS teachers are usually better treated by
the often reviled administrators of English Departments, who care less
for accent than for ability and experience.
A further irony is that NNS English teachers who return to their countries
after qualifying in the West are not always able to find work. Some language
program administrators, notably in Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, prefer
to hire unqualified NS instead of qualified locals. The classified pages
of newspapers in these countries are strewn with advertisements for "native
English speakers." Exposed to such propaganda day after day, the
minds of parents and students are brainwashed and the native-speaker fallacy
is perpetuated. Indeed, we in ELT inhabit a weird landscape. A colleague
in Hong Kong was once asked how she could teach English, since she is
American. Another American friend, being interviewed for a private tutor
position over the phone, was turned down because she did not have a "British"
accent.
Jenin and others like him are in the bewildering and frustrating position
of being denied what they have been trained to do. How can they respond
in these circumstances? First, they should accept that the playing field
will not be level for NNS English teachers, that they will have to struggle
twice as hard to achieve what often comes as a birthright to their NS
counterparts: recognition of their teaching ability and respect for their
scholarship. Often, teaching ability alone will not suffice for employment
or career advancement. They must grow as professionals, taking active
roles and assuming leadership in teacher organizations, initiating research
(even on a small scale), sharing their ideas through publications, and
learning to network with NNS colleagues.
Like I did, they will meet courageous administrators who will see beyond
their accents and pronunciation, mentors who will promote their careers,
and colleagues who will support their research and publication efforts.
The ELT profession is segregated and the competition for jobs is fierce,
but a glance at the scholarship in ELT shows how much NNS have achieved.
Further afield, in current fiction, the technical mastery of V.S. Naipaul,
the magical prose of Salman Rushdie, the subtle brilliance of Kazuo Ishiguro,
and the million dollar book contract of Arundhati Roy are proof that mastery
of the English language is within everyone's reach. |