Native-Speakerism in Japan: Intergroup Dynamics in Foreign Language Education

The relative status of native and non-native speaker language teachers within educational institutions has long been an issue worldwide but until recently, the voices of teachers articulating their own concerns have been rare. Existing work has tended to focus upon the position of non-native teachers and their struggle against unfavourable comparisons with their native-speaker counterparts. However, more recently, native-speaker language teachers have also been placed in the academic spotlight as interest grows in language-based forms of prejudice such as ‘native-speakerism’ – a dominant ideology prevalent within the Japanese context of English language education. This innovative volume explores wide-ranging issues related to native-speakerism as it manifests itself in the Japanese and Italian educational contexts to show how native-speaker teachers can also be the targets of multifarious forms of prejudice and discrimination in the workplace.

Stephanie Ann Houghton is an Associate Professor in Intercultural Communication at Saga University, Japan. She has published numerous articles and books on intercultural communication. She is a co-editor of the book series Intercultural Communication and Language Education (Springer), and the AILA ReN Coordinator for a research network focusing on native-speakerism.

Damian J. Rivers holds an MSc in Social Psychology, an MA in Applied Linguistics, and a PhD in Applied Linguistics/Sociolinguistics from the University of Leicester, UK. He is currently an Associate Professor at Osaka University and undertakes research into intergroup dynamics in foreign language education.