Native-English-Speaking Teachers:Disconnections Between Theory, Research, and Practice

Native-English-speaking teachers (NESTs) have long been in demand for perceived benefits of the skills they bring to the classroom. However, the notion that native speakers provide the best models of the target language and thus make the best teachers of the language has been criticised in the literature. This article reports on the disconnection between academic literature on NESTs and the realities they report. Drawing on data from an investigation into NEST schemes globally, the article suggests that lived classroom experiences of NESTs are complex, They are also often bilingual, experienced, and qualified, and regard local English teachers (LETs) they work with as experts and in control of how English is practised in the classroom. These characteristics contrast with much of the academic literature, which explores the concept of native speakerism, which tends to view NESTs negatively. The article proposes that one reason for the disconnection between theory and practice is the parallel lives of researchers and teachers, whether NESTs or LETs. Thus, each group’s realities and concerns are not always understood by the other. The article suggests that a substantial group of bilingual and bicultural NESTs consider the country where work home, so future theorisations of NESTs and native speakerism should take account of these teachers

The dynamics of Turkish TV talk shows A pragmatic study of the interaction patterns of the participants of TV talk shows in Turkey

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN009997 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

New Frontiers in Teaching and Learning English

The chapters in this volume explore several focal issues related to the global spread of English and their implications for English language teaching, providing both theoretical and empirical perspectives on recent research and implications in educational terms (Part I \u2013 Developments in ELF research and pedagogic implications), teacher education and teachers\u2019 views (Part II - Raising teachers\u2019 awareness of ELF), as well as ELF-oriented classroom practices and testing and assessment (Part 3 - ELF and ELT practices). The volume aims at providing an up-to-date perspective on issues, implications and repercussions that findings in ELF research can have for ELT practices. The contributions from scholars and researchers who have long been engaged in ELF-related research, and who have undertaken operational and practical work in the field, aim to offer a broad picture, ranging from primary school to higher education, with novel perspectives on the issues and implications brought about by ELF research in teaching and learning English. Innovative projects in teacher education, involving pre- and in-service teachers, are also presented, providing exemplificative good practices of possible new routes into pluralistic, ELF-aware and ELF-oriented didactic perspectives

Face Work in Spanish Language Service Encounters between Native and Nonnative Speakers in the United States

Linguistic politeness plays an important role in the opinions people form of one another, especially when it offers one of the few clues an individual may have of his or her interlocutor’s disposition, as is the case in anonymous, first-time service encounters. Face is a fundamental con- cept in politeness theory. To borrow a summary from Callahan (2011): Positive face refers to the desire to be liked and appreciated, while negative face refers to the desire to be unimpeded (Brown and Levinson 1987). Positive and negative face are often characterized as corresponding to the dichotomies of involvement vs. independ- ence, intimacy vs. distance, and solidarity vs. deference (Scollon and Scollon 2001). An action or utterance that goes against one’s need for appreciation, in the case of positive face, or autonomy, in the case of negative face, is said to constitute a face-threatening act, or FTA (Brown and Levinson 1987). [...] Speech acts as well as non-linguistic actions that attend to the addressee’s as well as the speaker’s own face, both positive and negative, are described as face work.1 Face work attenuates, or mitigates, the force of face-threatening acts. (28