Neocolonialism
While it is easy to become excited at the prospect of empowering students and learning about new cultures by teaching English abroad, it is important that EFL teachers take the time to critically examine the field of TEFL. Research suggests that it is necessary to consider the effect that societal pressures, demand for native-speakers to work as teachers, and even teaching practices have on the way students think about their own languages and cultures.
According to a study by Yan Guo and Gulbahar H. Becket titled “The Hegemony of English as a Global Language: Reclaiming Local Knowledge and Culture in China,” EFL has, at least in China, become an agent of neocolonialism (Guo and Beckett 117). Neocolonialism, to clarify, is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence another country.” As the word itself suggests, neocolonialism is similar to colonialism in that it also refers to a kind of control that one nation exerts over another. In the case of China, Guo and Becket argue that the neocolonial problem lies in the way in which English is valued above traditional languages such as Uighur, Tibetan, and Mongolian (126) as well as the problem of native-speakerism (122), a phrase that describes the idea that native speakers of a language are better able to teach it than non-native speakers, even when non-native speakers have attained fluency in the language and have a teaching background.
Native speakerism appears also in the way in which EFL teachers sometimes try to change the behavior of their students to better match their pedagogical ideals. The idea that education should be student-centered, for example, sometimes clashes with the kind of pedagogy that is accepted in other countries. Some see the attempt to shift teaching methods in the EFL classroom as a kind of native- speakerism in that the assumption behind the shift is that the EFL teacher for whom English is a first language knows more about teaching than other EFL teachers (Holliday, 385-387). This poses important questions for native speakers of English who hope to teach abroad, most importantly:
What is the most ethical way for me to enter and work in the field of TEFL?
While I will not venture to answer this question for others, I think that it is safe to say that all teachers should take the time to understand the past interactions that the nation in which they will teach has had with the English language as well as current controversial and/or problematic affects of English language learning.
Lest the discussion of native-speakerism and neocolonialism leave hopeful EFL teachers discouraged, it should be noted that there are multiple perspectives on the issue. While native-speakerism remains a clear form of discrimination that should be eliminated from the field of TEFL, there are valid arguments in favor of teaching English abroad. The most intuitive of these has to do with empowering students so that they can make their voices heard globally. For all of the controversy surrounding the rise of English as an international language, the increased interest in English around the world has made it possible for people of very diverse backgrounds to communicate with one another because they hold a language in common: English. Additionally, there are those who hold to the idea that, as the English language becomes more widely spoken, it will belong less to one particular group and will develop a more international identity. (Byram and Risager, qtd. in Lochtman and Kappel, 25.)
Ultimately, it is up to each individual EFL teacher and student to make meaning of the controversies of neocolonialism today and to choose the most ethical way to respond to or be part of the field. This summary barely scratches the surface of the thinking that has been done about neocolonialism and its relevance to TEFL, but hopefully an awareness of the issue of neocolonialism in the field can inform decisions about how and why to teach so that the future of TEFL as a field will be one of empowerment.
According to a study by Yan Guo and Gulbahar H. Becket titled “The Hegemony of English as a Global Language: Reclaiming Local Knowledge and Culture in China,” EFL has, at least in China, become an agent of neocolonialism (Guo and Beckett 117). Neocolonialism, to clarify, is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence another country.” As the word itself suggests, neocolonialism is similar to colonialism in that it also refers to a kind of control that one nation exerts over another. In the case of China, Guo and Becket argue that the neocolonial problem lies in the way in which English is valued above traditional languages such as Uighur, Tibetan, and Mongolian (126) as well as the problem of native-speakerism (122), a phrase that describes the idea that native speakers of a language are better able to teach it than non-native speakers, even when non-native speakers have attained fluency in the language and have a teaching background.
Native speakerism appears also in the way in which EFL teachers sometimes try to change the behavior of their students to better match their pedagogical ideals. The idea that education should be student-centered, for example, sometimes clashes with the kind of pedagogy that is accepted in other countries. Some see the attempt to shift teaching methods in the EFL classroom as a kind of native- speakerism in that the assumption behind the shift is that the EFL teacher for whom English is a first language knows more about teaching than other EFL teachers (Holliday, 385-387). This poses important questions for native speakers of English who hope to teach abroad, most importantly:
What is the most ethical way for me to enter and work in the field of TEFL?
While I will not venture to answer this question for others, I think that it is safe to say that all teachers should take the time to understand the past interactions that the nation in which they will teach has had with the English language as well as current controversial and/or problematic affects of English language learning.
Lest the discussion of native-speakerism and neocolonialism leave hopeful EFL teachers discouraged, it should be noted that there are multiple perspectives on the issue. While native-speakerism remains a clear form of discrimination that should be eliminated from the field of TEFL, there are valid arguments in favor of teaching English abroad. The most intuitive of these has to do with empowering students so that they can make their voices heard globally. For all of the controversy surrounding the rise of English as an international language, the increased interest in English around the world has made it possible for people of very diverse backgrounds to communicate with one another because they hold a language in common: English. Additionally, there are those who hold to the idea that, as the English language becomes more widely spoken, it will belong less to one particular group and will develop a more international identity. (Byram and Risager, qtd. in Lochtman and Kappel, 25.)
Ultimately, it is up to each individual EFL teacher and student to make meaning of the controversies of neocolonialism today and to choose the most ethical way to respond to or be part of the field. This summary barely scratches the surface of the thinking that has been done about neocolonialism and its relevance to TEFL, but hopefully an awareness of the issue of neocolonialism in the field can inform decisions about how and why to teach so that the future of TEFL as a field will be one of empowerment.