“I Mean I'm Kind of Discriminating My Own People:” A Chinese TESOL Graduate Student's Shifting Perceptions of China English

Abstract

World Englishes has become a robust field of inquiry as scholars pursue more nuanced understandings of linguistic localization and multilinguals’ negotiations of language differences. Yet research demonstrates that teachers and learners of English as a foreign language continue, albeit in a partially conflicted way, to believe that prestigious native speaker varieties are the sole acceptable targets of instruction. Thus, there is a need for further inquiries into the factors that influence individuals’ attitudes toward localized Englishes and the efficacy of classroom interventions in modifying these. Utilizing a qualitative case study approach, the present study traces one Chinese TESOL graduate student's journey from harshly repudiating China English to vindicating its use. Drawing from semistructured interviews conducted over approximately 3 years, the study illustrates how the participant's language attitudes were bound up with her emotional understandings of significant life experiences. It also explicates how the complex ramifications of a blunt provocation from one of her instructors and a sense of alienation arising from studying alongside U.S. native speakers ultimately led her to defend China English outside the classroom. The article concludes with practical recommendations for TESOL programs that seek to instill more tolerant dispositions toward linguistic differences while avoiding superficial inscriptions of Western discourses.

“I must have taken a fake TOEFL!”: Rethinking Linguistically Responsive Instruction Through the Eyes of Chinese International Freshmen

“…Both incidents demonstrated the “strong hold” of monolingual ideologies (Arnold, 2020, p. 337) on Chinese international students. Since native speakers were considered “the sole acceptable models” (Nuske, 2018, p. 366), American high students’ accents were stigmatized and regular high students’ severe deviation from the native‐speaker norms positioned them at the bottom of the discrimination chain. Consequently, despite their shared mother tongue and American high students’ familiarity with Western education and culture, regular high students rarely sought support from them and relied heavily on their within‐group support network.…”

“More Like You”: Disrupting Native Speakerism Through a Multimodal Online Intercultural Exchange

“…Yet for the students who felt most anxious, this identification—the unexpected finding of sameness among those expected to be other—contributed something important to their growth. As Cook () memorably pointed out, many L2 English speakers “resign themselves to ‘failing’ to reach the native speaker target” (p. 191), and nonnative‐speaking teachers grapple with a resulting sense of themselves as lesser or illegitimate (e.g., Nuske, ; Park, ). In Sri Lanka, despite a growing acceptance of Sri Lankan English, mastery of British English remains an important source of social capital and a mark of prestige (Bernaisch, ; Ratwatte, ).…”

“…Even in deeply multilingual societies, the goal of English language instruction is still most often the acquisition of a “pure” or “standard” educated British or U.S. accent (Matsuda, ) as a path to social prestige and economic advancement. These practices cause deep anxiety among nonnative‐speaking teachers (Nuske, ; Park, ), shaping assumptions about the abilities and knowledge of both native‐ and nonnative‐speaking teachers (Lowe & Kiczkowiak, ).…”

Transparency with Second Language and Multilingual Transcription

“…For example, *Buckingham (2014) reported “each interviewee received a typed version of his interview, which allowed him the option of amending inaccuracies” (p. 10), while admitting the exclusion of nonstandard features in the transcript excerpts. *Nuske (2018) involved his L2 research participant Linlin in the transcription process, which seems to result in mostly standard, idiomatic transcription as well. Indeed, involving L2 research participants in the transcription process has the possibility of excluding L2 linguistic features.…”