Discrimination in Teaching English IndustryAbstractThere is no doubt that the “Language” is a gift from God.
Throughout the history, the language called “English” has enriched the civilization in the world by uniting various ethnicities. As time passed, in modern days almost entire of the world utilize the global language, English, to communicate with people from diverse cultures and nations for multiple purposes. Due to the impact, the demand of the people who wants to learn English has skyrocketed. Thanks to the modern technologies, people can now be a certified teacher or an instructor to teach English anywhere without any difficulties. Although English has become the universal language, many society still holds the prejudice against the non-white person teaching English as if it is one’s native language. Therefore, 21st century is the time period where the discrimination and racism in English teaching industry must be dissipate so that all can acquire equal opportunity to achieve their goals as an English teacher and instructor. IntroductionThere are various types of English teaching jobs in the world and people who majored in English or qualified to teach the language are eager to build their careers in many different countries.
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In fact, if instructors are properly trained to teach the language, then theoretically anybody amongst them must not face any discrimination or racism whether educating English to the Native English Speakers (NES) or Non-Native English Speakers (NNES). Although, the English teaching industry is essentially available to the ordinary people who obtained degree in English literature, Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and other English related subjects struggle to acquire high salaried positions or even the teaching position in general itself. Unfortunately, most of the people who experience the inequality are NNES and mass numbers of teachers within this community are able to articulate English fluently and accurately. Perhaps, large numbers of them comprehend the academic English better than most of the NES. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) stated about 27% of the schools in the United States (US) are currently seeking the English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Language Learners (ELLs) teachers who can also fluently speak another foreign language too (Beare, Kenneth).
Furthermore, each year the demand of the ESL and ELLs teachers are gradually increasing, but compare to the increase of the demand, the supply is decreasing. Ironically, in the world there are about fifty-four countries located in multiple continents adopted English as their nation’s official language (Rosenberg, Matt). The study proves that there are many resources around the world, yet many countries consistently state the shortages of ESL and ELLs teachers. Thanks to the universities and international educational institutions, currently students in the world can be properly trained to obtain Master’s Degree or certificate/diploma in TESOL and other English certification program. Each year, the number of graduates proves that there are adequate supply (Teachers) compares to the demand (Students). Regular people might assume that there is not sufficient supply to satisfy the needs of the market. Nevertheless, based on the research, the nationality of the ESL and ELLs teachers was not the major rationale, but crucially many were judged by the skin colors and the facial appearances (Blonde hair, Blue eyes, Pointy nose, White skin, etc.
). This indicates that if an applicant does not possess any of Westerner’s visual attributes, then compare to someone who has it the opportunity of gaining the occupation is remarkably low. Although, not every countries show inequality towards the applicants, still the large sum of the institutions, organizations, or corporations discriminated multiple applicants by their facial features (ICAL TEFL). Ironically, in such countries which have been exposed to the Western cultures long enough that they found its culture is more superior, then eventually the value of “White” ethnicity gets higher than any other ethnic groups. If so, then how can all the NNES ESL and ELLs applicants with none of the Western appearances can avoid the inequality or racial discrimination to build the career as a professional teacher?Who is Native English Speaker?According to both Cambridge and Mariam dictionaries, they similarly stated the definition of “Native Speaker” as: a person who acquired the language as a baby, but not during as a child or an adult. Unlike the definitions from the dictionaries, American National Corpus (ANC) has different definition based on the research. ANC stated that “Surprisingly, after consulting with the American Dialect Society, we discovered there is no agreed-upon definition of who can be considered a native speaker of English (or any language, for that matter)” (Contribute Text).
Theoretically, the definition from the two well-known dictionaries are error-free, but in a practical sense the conclusion that ANC presented is more accurate and reliable.Just about two to three decades ago, applying for more than one or two positions a day were inconceivable. Thanks to the modern technology, teachers in present days can easily access to the recruitment information through the internet and forage for the various jobs in multiple different continents. Identically to the other industries, the English teaching industry has its own requirements and the applicants are expected to fulfill them when they apply for the position.
Nevertheless, although an applicant properly submits the Curriculum Vitae (CV), tremendous numbers of the companies, private institutions, organizations, and etc. still distinguish the NES by one’s birth certificate (Kiczkowiak, Marek). Also according to the research from Europe Language Jobs, only about 30% of the jobs that are registered in one of the famous Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) English teaching job website do not necessarily requires the applicants to be the NES (Matt). The EFL teacher, Kiczkowiak asserted that the English proficiency skill must be purely evaluated by a person’s CV or resume rather than the birth certificate, because occasionally most NNES are generally aware that they might not be the best choice and be more ineffective than the NES.
Nevertheless, in some universities’ enrollment requirements states that if a student has received the English education from K-12 then the student is considered as the NES. The statistics from “Ethnologue” presents that English is being used in 118 different nations and overall there are 378million people who speak English (Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig). Based on the previous research, world most used language called “English” does not only belong to the British or American, but it became the universal language that anybody can master. This clearly presents that people who speaks English with Westerner’s attributes are not the only NESs, but people whom are exposed to English language for adequate number of years (usually more than twelve years) without any Caucasian appearances can also be considered as the NESs.
Regardless of the person’s nationality and backgrounds, if he or she would like to conduct the business, teaching, study, etc. in foreign countries, then the one must know how to speak English to communicate with the people. Therefore, anybody who is not from the English speaking countries that understands how to manage the verbal communication and comprehend the academic English, then he or she holds a right to be referred as one of the NESs. Inequality and Racism in English Teaching IndustryIf a teacher from non-white ethnicity teaches a subject call “English”, will it be easily accepted by the community in the first place? Often majority numbers of communities have misconception that if a person does not possess any of Caucasian characteristics or neither from any of famous English speaking countries, then without any further information they simply consider a person as the NNES. Ironically, these types of prejudice do not only happen in Eastern countries but also occurs in Western, Middle East, and many other countries. Indeed, tremendous amount of applicants face one of the worst inequality and racism when they search for the English teaching jobs in South Korea.
This is because; South Korea still does not have a law that strongly forbids the inequality and racial discrimination against the foreign employees; especially to the employees whom they have none of the Caucasian appearances and searching for the ESL or ELLs related occupation (Zwetsloot, Jacco). However, certainly these types of mistreatment do not only take place in South Korea but happens in many countries in the world. Interesting fact is that most of the inequality and racial discrimination are affected by the “Tiger Mom” parenting culture (If a person is referred as “Tiger Mom” it is usually means that a mom who fully contributes everything to raise her child(ren) to have a successful life) (Kim, Nicky). The definition alone portraits the moms in South Korea incredibly passionate, but the reality is that these Tiger Moms interfere and play a huge role in setting up the requirements in many of public and private schools, and private English institutions.Another example is from Japan, “You may encounter job ads that say they are looking for a ‘Caucasian teacher’. These are sometimes openly advertised and other times not.
ESL employer preferences can be discriminatory.” (ESLinsider). Even in Middle East like Dubai and United Arab Emirate (UAE) shows inequality and racial discrimination during the job applicant process (PEREIRA, Elton). From the examples, it is obvious that the culture of one’s country has huge impacts on the “Inequality and Racism” subject in English teaching industry. For instance, most of the private English institutes release the requirements for the English teaching position and those often only implies to the applicants that are from USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa with Caucasian appearance at the most (Amanda).
Due to the reality, as the world becomes more globalized and the districts between the countries get more ambiguous and the world will gradually face an unimaginable numbers of floating population. Thus if the nation refuses to protect the foreign employees and job seekers from the inequality and racism issues, then those can be considered as an action of isolating oneself from the entire world. To avoid being culled out from the generation, the government in the nation must regulate the labor market with the regulations such as “Race Discrimination” or “Employment Discrimination” especially in teaching English industry. Moreover, English language spread during the colonial period; currently many nations adopted it as their official language but each has its own uniqueness. Usually, American English is considered as the “Standard English”, yet American English is derivative of British English. If the world consider English as the universal language, then why distinguish between the NESs and NNESs? The society should only judge one’s English proficiency skill by how well he or she can command the vocabulary and comprehend the language.
Last but not least, TEFL and TESOL teachers should only be measured by CVs and Resumes but not their ethnicity or birth certificate.ConclusionIf compare to the business world, English is a great product that has been successfully created and modified throughout the history. Thanks to the time, the product has been distributed to the almost entire world and generation after generation each country amended the product which contains the nation’s culture and tradition. It is similar to a company which first started selling the product, but eventually other corporations imitated and developed the product to have the better qualities and uniqueness. Almost identical to the example, English might have been originated from British; nonetheless, many countries now has succeeded promoting their own English by developing it into their own style. Due to the fact, the path way to become a NES is wide open to anybody and the tone of skin nor the birth certificate can stop the one from becoming a NES.
Therefore, English is no longer bounded to any specific nation(s), but it became the language of the universe. Thus, anybody that does not possess any Western features who has spoken English for certain amount of time (at least minimum twelve years) and one’s ability reached to the point where students from the Non-English speaking countries and English speaking countries can be taught and learn, then the person has a right to be called as a NES. As a result, schools, private English institutions, organizations, and etc. must be aware that the types of the skin color and facial features cannot be the consideration, but one’s career in English education field and the backgrounds must be the only qualifications. Henceforth, teachers must be acknowledged and be accepted based on their CVs and Resume than mere birth certificate, tone of skin, and the features of the Western appearances. Last but not least, 21st century is the time period where society must never tolerate the actions of discrimination and racism. Work CiteAmanda.
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