The Prevailing Issue of Native Speakerism: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Institutions’ Websites

The English language teaching (ELT) industry has been expanding in China, and at present there are private online ELT institutions which provide English lessons which focus mainly on communication skills. The official websites of these institutions not only provide information about the programmes...

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Main Author: Yuxi Guo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Malaya 2024-07-01
Series:Journal of Modern Languages
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Online Access:https://ejournal.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/50404
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author Yuxi Guo
author_facet Yuxi Guo
author_sort Yuxi Guo
collection DOAJ
description The English language teaching (ELT) industry has been expanding in China, and at present there are private online ELT institutions which provide English lessons which focus mainly on communication skills. The official websites of these institutions not only provide information about the programmes offered but also communicate their English language teaching pedagogical beliefs and stances. This paper aims to examine the language use in these websites and to explore how it reflects language ideologies. The websites of nine Chinese online ELT institutions were selected. Textual data were collected from the front page and subfields of these websites and were subjected to a critical discourse analysis based on Fairclough’s (1995) three-dimensional methodology. The findings suggest that there is a prevailing bias toward native-speakerism language ideology in the ELT industry.  This emerged from the use of intentional vocabulary and word choice for their marketing campaigns. Repeated use of these words normalizes the authoritative image of teachers who are native English speakers. Additionally, these institutions also adopt multiple discursive strategies which intensify the stereotype of native speakerism to the public whilst seeming to discriminate against teachers who are not native speakers of English. The findings shed light on social inequity and biases in private online ELT institutions.
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spelling doaj-art-1fc2d37873c64680af05e65851dfcf092024-11-20T04:46:10ZengUniversiti MalayaJournal of Modern Languages1675-526X2462-19862024-07-0134110.22452/jml.vol34no1.5The Prevailing Issue of Native Speakerism: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Institutions’ WebsitesYuxi Guo0Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan The English language teaching (ELT) industry has been expanding in China, and at present there are private online ELT institutions which provide English lessons which focus mainly on communication skills. The official websites of these institutions not only provide information about the programmes offered but also communicate their English language teaching pedagogical beliefs and stances. This paper aims to examine the language use in these websites and to explore how it reflects language ideologies. The websites of nine Chinese online ELT institutions were selected. Textual data were collected from the front page and subfields of these websites and were subjected to a critical discourse analysis based on Fairclough’s (1995) three-dimensional methodology. The findings suggest that there is a prevailing bias toward native-speakerism language ideology in the ELT industry.  This emerged from the use of intentional vocabulary and word choice for their marketing campaigns. Repeated use of these words normalizes the authoritative image of teachers who are native English speakers. Additionally, these institutions also adopt multiple discursive strategies which intensify the stereotype of native speakerism to the public whilst seeming to discriminate against teachers who are not native speakers of English. The findings shed light on social inequity and biases in private online ELT institutions. https://ejournal.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/50404Native Speakerism, ELT Institutions, Language Ideology, Critical Discourse Analysis, Official Websites
spellingShingle Yuxi Guo
The Prevailing Issue of Native Speakerism: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Institutions’ Websites
Journal of Modern Languages
Native Speakerism, ELT Institutions, Language Ideology, Critical Discourse Analysis, Official Websites
title The Prevailing Issue of Native Speakerism: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Institutions’ Websites
title_full The Prevailing Issue of Native Speakerism: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Institutions’ Websites
title_fullStr The Prevailing Issue of Native Speakerism: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Institutions’ Websites
title_full_unstemmed The Prevailing Issue of Native Speakerism: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Institutions’ Websites
title_short The Prevailing Issue of Native Speakerism: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Institutions’ Websites
title_sort prevailing issue of native speakerism a critical discourse analysis of elt institutions websites
topic Native Speakerism, ELT Institutions, Language Ideology, Critical Discourse Analysis, Official Websites
url https://ejournal.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/50404
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