The construct and effects of

the native speaker fallacy in the U.S. University Japanese language

program

Shinsuke Tsuchiya The Ohio State University

Ph.D. student in Japanese Pedagogy Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures

Acknowledgements

• Dr. Keiko Samimy from the Education Department at OSU.

• Drs. Charles Quinn, Noda, and Karen Curtin from the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at OSU.

• Students and teachers of Japanese

The Native Speaker Fallacy (Phillipson, 1992)

Research Questions

1. Does the native speaker fallacy exist in Japanese programs in the U.S.?

2. What is the definition of a native speaker?

3. Are nonnative teachers of Japanese negatively affected by the native speaker fallacy?

4. What are some pedagogical implications?

Methodology Triangulation (Pavlenko, 2007)

Survey

Observation

Interviews

Quantitative Qualitative

245 response > Students Level 1: 126 Level 2: 62 Level 3: 36 Level 4/higher: 9 > Teachers: 12

Video recording New Teacher Training/Follow-up classes=17 hrs Classroom teaching=24 hrs

Audio recording Follow-up interviews after teaching = 6 hrs

Performed Culture Approach (Walker and Noda, 2010)

• ACT • FACT

中村さん、いらっしゃいますか？

Why do we use honorifics in this context?

Results and Discussions

1. Does the native speaker fallacy exist in Japanese programs in the U.S.?

2. What is the definition of a native speaker?

3. Are nonnative teachers of Japanese negatively affected by the native speaker fallacy?

4. What are some pedagogical implications?

Do you prefer a native or nonnative? N=245

0 50 100 150 200 250

Compassionate

Lenient grader

grammar

fun/exciting

asking Qs

Beg R/W

effective and qualified

Beg S/L

if untrained

culture

Adv R/W

Target language only

in general

informal lang

Adv S/L

standard

pronunciation

Native Nonnative

Native teacher

No preference

Nonnative teacher

130 106 3

In general, I prefer a…

Level -0.1001 ** p<0.01 while controlling participants’ age, ethnic background, gender, native language, status as students or teachers, and level of class.

“The higher participants’ level of class gets, participants show more preference for a native teacher.”

Results and Discussions

1. Does the native speaker fallacy exist in Japanese programs in the U.S.?

2. What is the definition of a native speaker?

3. Are nonnative teachers of Japanese negatively affected by the native speaker fallacy?

4. What are some pedagogical implications?

Definition of a native speaker? N=245

.

0 50 100 150 200 250

gendersexual orientation

nameappearancenationality

social/econstandard dialect

monolingualeducation

teachingno foreign lang influence

perfect grammarno accent

cultureidiomatic expressions

read and writebehavior

competencetiming

Yes, I would include this characterization.

Results and Discussions

1. Does the native speaker fallacy exist in Japanese programs in the U.S.?

2. What is the definition of a native speaker?

3. Are nonnative teachers of Japanese negatively affected by the native speaker fallacy?

4. What are some pedagogical implications?

Non/native teachers are NOT homogenous

Results and Discussions

1. Does the native speaker fallacy exist in Japanese programs in the U.S.?

2. What is the definition of a native speaker?

3. Are nonnative teachers of Japanese negatively affected by the native speaker fallacy?

4. What are some pedagogical implications?

Flow Czikszentmihalyi (2000)

Coping with foreign language anxiety (Horwitz, 1996)

• Recognize it

• Give permission to be less than perfect

• Recognize “Culture shock”

• Give credits

• Become aware of language learning process

• Imagine speaking well in a teaching setting

• Make plans to improve language proficiency

• Be supportive!

Summary

• The native speaker fallacy exists in the minds of Japanese students and teachers.

• “Native” speakers are idealized.

• Non/native teachers are not homogenous groups of people.

• Nonnative teachers are not necessarily negatively affected by the native speaker fallacy.

• Focus on coping with foreign language anxiety

Thank you!

• Shinsuke Tsuchiya

tsuchiya.16@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Reference • Braine, G. (1999). From the Periphery to the Center: One Teacher's Journey. In G. Braine

(Ed.), Non-Native Educators in English Language Teaching. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

• Braine, G. (2010). Nonnative Speaker English Teachers. New York: Routledge.

• Csikszentmihalyi, (2000) San Francisco, CA, US: Jossey-Bass. P. 231.

• Doerr, N. M. (Ed.). (2009). The Native Speaker Concept (Vol. 26): De Gruyter Mouton.

• Horwitz, E. K. (1996). Even Teachers Get the Blues: Recognizing and Alleviating Language Teachers' Feelings of Foreign Language Anxiety. Foreign Language Annals, 29(3), 365-372.

• Horwitz & Young (1991). Language Anxiety: From Theory and Research to Classroom Implications. Eaglewood Cliffs, NJ: Presence-Hall.

• Llurda, E. (2006). Looking at the perceptions, challenges, and contributions... or the importance of being a non-native teacher. In E. Llurda (Ed.), Non-Native Language Teachers Perceptions, Challenges, and Contributions to the Profession (Vol. 5). New York: Springer.

• Medgyes, P. (1992). Native or nonnative: Who's worth more? . ELT journal, 46(4), 340-349.

• Pavlenko, A. (2007). Autobiographic Narratives as Data in Applied Linguistics. Applied Linguistics, 28(2), 163-188. doi: doi:10.1093/applin/amm008

• Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Walker, G., & Noda, M. (2010). Rembmering the Future: Compiling Knowledge of Another Culture. In G. Walker (Ed.), The Pedagogy of Performing Another Culture. Columbus: OH: National East Asian Languages Resources Center at The Ohio State University.