Non-native English-speaking teachers revisited: paradoxes in multilingual professionals’ identity development | Synapse
June 15, 2026
Non-native English-speaking teachers revisited: paradoxes in multilingual professionals’ identity development
Key Points
To investigate the paradoxes in the identity development of non-native English-speaking teachers within the context of language education.
Reviewed literature from applied linguistics and language teacher education since the 1990s.
Analyzed critiques of native speakerism and its implications on language teaching identities.
Identified significant tensions between native/non-native speaker identities.
Highlighted the impact of societal attitudes on multilingual professionals' self-perceptions.
Abstract
Since the 1990s, debates in applied linguistics and language teacher education have been shaped by the native/non-native speaker dichotomy. Early critiques of “native speakerism” (Holliday, 2006) r...