Native-speakerism, (dis)Empowerment, and Paradoxes of Internationalization: An Autoethnography of Success and Failure in Language Teaching and Learning in Japan

Native-speakerism is an ideology in English language teaching, which values the models of English and the pedagogical approaches of the West above those of other parts of the world. The privilege afforded to ‘native speakers’ from Western nations is perhaps the most visible result of native-speakerism, and is realized primarily in terms of greater employment opportunities. However, in Japan, a second strand of literature has explored how ‘native speaker’ teachers may also face discriminatory treatment as a result of essentialism, which positions them not as individuals or professionals, but only as representatives of English language and culture. In this chapter, the author, a ‘native speaker’ teacher, uses the tools of autoethnography to reflect on his experiences as a young language teacher in Japan, in order to examine how institutional native-speakerist language policies had both empowering and disempowering effects on his professional development and integration into the Japanese higher education sector. While extreme levels of privilege surrounding job opportunities are acknowledged, the chapter explores the ways in which policies such as 'English only’ in the classroom, and the maintenance of a pretense of cultural and linguistic purity, led to a limited facility with the Japanese language, and ongoing professional disadvantage. The chapter explores how the goals of internationalization held by universities may by contradicted in practice by policies which alienate non-Japanese teachers and obstruct their assimilation into the workplace.