Challenging the Native and Nonnative English Speaker Hierarchy in Elt: New Directions From Race Theory

Introducing LangCrit: Critical Language and Race Theory

“…For example, Kubota andLin (2006, 2009a) argued that TESOL was relatively void of research that has used CRT as an analytic lens, even though the field is concerned with interactions between native speakers of English who have been socially constructed as White, and non-native speakers of English, who have been socially constructed as non-White. This represents a significant blind spot for the field, one that propagates a (White) native-speaker fallacy, which runs throughout ELT hiring practices, for example (Ruecker, 2011). In the past decade, however, there have been some significant critiques of this association between Whiteness and the ownership of English.…”

“…She critiqued the liberalist discourse that underlies multicultural education as promoting an ideology of "unity of difference" (p. 62), which leaves very little space to discuss or acknowledge of racism or racist structures. These articles have had an important impact on educational studies, and others have followed suit by drawing on tenets of CRT to examine various educational contexts (e.g., critical pedagogy, Parker & Stovall, 2004 Kubota & Lin, 2006, 2009bRuecker, 2011;and teacher A. Crump 214 education, Subedi, 2007). Overall, Critical Race Educational studies, or CRE (Tate, 1997), challenges dominant discourses by examining how educational theories, policies, and practices subordinate different racial and racialized groups.…”

“…This article responds to and builds on the growing scholarship in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) that draws on critical race theory (CRT) to critique and understand the propagation of Whiteness as a norm associated with native English speakers (e.g., Curtis & Romney, 2006;Kubota & Lin, 2006, 2009Motha, 2006;Ruecker, 2011). The same movement to develop a critical race informed scholarship does not, however, appear to have taken hold in language studies beyond the context of TESOL.…”

Challenges in maintaining a heritage language

“…These perceived judgments may then lead to the unjustifiable treatment of the individual. As a result, racism and linguicism operate together when "they are constantly reinforced through daily discourses and actions that make them seem natural, increasing their power through making them less likely to be challenged" (Ruecker, 2011). Meanwhile, the intersectionality of racism and linguicism has been explored by the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) researchers (Kubota & Lin, 2009;Liggett, 2014;Malsbary, 2014;Ruecker, 2011).…”

“…As a result, racism and linguicism operate together when "they are constantly reinforced through daily discourses and actions that make them seem natural, increasing their power through making them less likely to be challenged" (Ruecker, 2011). Meanwhile, the intersectionality of racism and linguicism has been explored by the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) researchers (Kubota & Lin, 2009;Liggett, 2014;Malsbary, 2014;Ruecker, 2011). For example, in her ethnographic study in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program at a diverse public high school in California, Malsbary (2014) examined how white supremacy created a condition in which hyper-segregated ESL students were perceived by others as intellectually inferior.…”