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The Persistence of Native Speakerism in Japanese Senior High School Curriculum Reform: Team Teaching in the “English in English” Initiative

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Towards Post-Native-Speakerism

Part of the book series: Intercultural Communication and Language Education ((ICLE))

Abstract

In team teaching (TT) , an approach to language education where so-called native and non-native English-speaking teachers teach in an English language classroom together, implicit in TT theory and practice is the perspective that through a “deficit” model (Bolstad & Zenuk-Nishide, 2016), one teacher’s purported strengths in the target language will somehow compensate for the other teacher’s purported linguistic weaknesses. This native speakerist deficit perspective is unfortunately embedded in TT recruitment schemes, where so-called native English speakers are positioned as agents of change who can bring innovation to English language teaching (ELT), such as communicative teaching practices and increased use of English. The current chapter, through analysis of policy discourse and semi-structured interview data, examines how team teaching is represented in a current initiative in Japanese senior high schools in which English teachers of Japanese nationality (JTEs) are required to conduct English classes in English, and discusses its implications for how TT is to be practised. It argues that the discourses of the “English in English” initiative fail to address lingering tensions with respect to how JTEs and their native English-speaking counterparts’ roles are framed in policy discourse, and perceived and enacted at the institutional level. These tensions, if unresolved, may preclude the possibility for native speakerism in TT practice to be eradicated at the classroom and institutional level.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Intercultural Communication, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan

    Gregory Paul Glasgow

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  1. Gregory Paul Glasgow
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Correspondence to Gregory Paul Glasgow .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Art and Regional Design, Saga University, Saga, Japan

    Stephanie Ann Houghton

  2. School of Languages and Cultures, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Kayoko Hashimoto

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Glasgow, G.P. (2018). The Persistence of Native Speakerism in Japanese Senior High School Curriculum Reform: Team Teaching in the “English in English” Initiative. In: Houghton, S., Hashimoto, K. (eds) Towards Post-Native-Speakerism. Intercultural Communication and Language Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7162-1_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7162-1_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7162-1

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