Disinventing and Reconstituting Native Speaker Ideologies through the Classroom Experiences of International TESOL Students

The current paper considers the invention, disinvention, and reconstitution of native speaker ideologies in terms of the perspectives and experiences of 22 TESOL master’s students facilitating a practical English class housed at a university. Facilitators’ reflections and experiences were collected using semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The analysis suggests that novice teachers may conflate non-native positionality with linguistic and pedagogical expertise, particularly while processing the challenges they face in the classroom. In doing so, they devalue their own teaching while simultaneously misunderstanding and underestimating the challenges faced by their peers. This paper suggests that while native speaker constructs are not empirically substantiated, their ideologies continue to affect novice teachers’ understanding of their own and others’ teaching strengths, weaknesses, and development. In the conclusion, I offer possible strategies for preparing and empowering international TESOL students as teachers in English language classrooms in the United States.