Cebu International EFL Conference

Abstract of paper

Author
Assistant Professor Hohsung Choe
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Korea

Title
Social and Professional Identity of Five Korean EFL Teachers

Abstract:
Much research has reported that nonnative-English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) are struggling to position themselves in the TESOL profession because of their nonnativeness. It is also reported that for the same reason Korean EFL teachers consider themselves second-rate teachers. The present study is designed to explore Korean EFL teachers’ social and professional identity in the Korean TESOL profession in which the NS-NNS (native speaker vs. nonnative speaker) dichotomy is activated. Using social identity theory and professional identity theory as my conceptual frameworks, I conducted case studies of five Korean EFL teachers in a college English program.

They were born and raised in Korea and started to learn English as a foreign language in middle school. Data were collected through interviews and personal conversations during one academic semester. The findings of this study demonstrate that the participants’ negative social identity is derived from social comparisons with their counterparts, native-English-speaking teachers (NESTs). They reported that they were discriminated against NESTs because students, parents, and school administrators prefer NESTs. The participants’ negative professional identity was constructed through their self-perceptions of English proficiency. They considered that NESTs would be superior to them in all subject areas of language. Even though they achieved a high enough level of English proficiency to teach, they believed that they were under-qualified. This feeling of inferiority acted destructively on the participants’ positive professional identity construction as a NNEST.

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