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Article published In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 45:1 (2022) ► pp.25–49

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Being native and being foreign

Native JFL teachers’ linguistic identity at tertiary institutions in New Zealand and Australia

ORCiD logo with link | The University of Auckland
 | Auckland University of Technology
Published online: 18 December 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.19059.min
Abstract
Pennington, M. C., & Richards, J. C. (2016). Teacher identity in language teaching: Integrating personal, contextual, and professional factors. RELC Journal, 47(1), 5–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar argue that if the medium of instruction (MOI) is not the native language of the instructor, lack of proficiency in the MOI could bring about a lack of confidence. This study inquired how native Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) teachers at tertiary institutions in New Zealand and Australia perceive their English proficiency, how it influences their linguistic identity, and how the fact that they are native speakers of the target language influences their linguistic identity. Based on responses from an online questionnaire with more than 50 respondents as well as 12 follow-up individual interviews, this study argues that their linguistic identity is not narrowly conceived around their non-nativeness in English and nativeness in Japanese, but constructed from more multi-faceted aspects of language teacher identity formation, especially by factors pertinent to the very nature of the tertiary teaching environment in these countries.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Teacher identity
    • 2.1Medium of instruction (MOI)
    • 2.2Native and non-native teachers debate
    • 2.3Native JFL teachers
  • 3.Research design
    • 3.1Research question
      • 3.2Method
        • 3.2.1Online questionnaire in Japanese
        • 3.2.2Individual interviews in Japanese
      • 3.3Participants
    • 3.4Analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Non-nativeness in English
    • 4.2Nativeness in Japanese
      • 4.2.1Skills and knowledge directly associated with the nativeness of the language
      • 4.2.2Skills and knowledge not directly associated with language nativeness
    • 4.3Context
    • 4.4Competences
    • 4.5Evolving and multiple identities
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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