Janina and Keilko’s article has led me to reexamine my past practices and experiences as learner and teacher of theories on colonialism and postcolonialism. The language of colonialism is the language of constructing cultural forms- “the dichotomies that defines and creates the image of “Other” in the realm of language use.” The interesting point is that such cultural construction of colonialism have become stabilized and consequently reproduced in the discourse of post-colonialism as normal, natural, and universal. The most important part of this article is how this colonial construction of “self” and “other” or “we” and “they” is produced in ESOL.
In this context, I had never thought that I myself was learning the language of “Other” and I was othering myself from my nativeness during my university days in Nepal. But the sense of preference to foreign teacher was always there while I was a university student back in Nepal. I remember the time when I had been taught by one foreign student teacher who was a native speaker of English language. We did not doubt his native tongue nor did we question the way he used to teach us. But the problem was that we could not make a mutual friendly connection between him and us. While he was “looking” at us, we would be “gazing” at him. Now, I realize that this colonial construction of cultural form in terms of “looking” and “gazing” is still implicitly revived while learning English language as a language of colonizers. In other words, the dichotomy of nonnative vs. native, west vs. east, dominant vs. subordinate, nature vs. culture and subjectivity vs. objectivity is still not under-eraser. Therefore, one can see the similar situation in an ESL classroom when a native speaker teacher is preferred to others. This is the reason why I attempt to move to examine my own assumption concerning nativeness and accent, asking in what ways I adopted this disempowering discourse that opposes what should be my concern, intelligibility and expertise in the language.
In the process of learning English language, I had never thought that I was the other of NS. In other words, learning English is to (dis)empower myself, to project my “self” to give in other or to become the slave of Other. But it is also an interesting point that native-speaking versus nonnative-speaking English language teacher can be questioned by challenging the validity of native-speaker fallacy because no scientific validity supports this proposition. The amorphous ghost of non-native and native dichotomy always haunts me when I reflect on constructing identity in colonial and postcolonial discourses. TESOL classroom can serve as a site for change in breaking down the dichotomous discourses of nativeness, promote the emergence of counter discourses, and form a unifying identity for all English teachers and professionals.
In Nepal, English is a mandatory subject in the high school and college curriculum because, according to the Ministry of Education, “English is an international language and all student need to learn it.” After reading the article, part of my reflection revolved around the fact that ELT in Nepal is primarily concerned with reading and writing. During my years of teaching, therefore, my main concern was to teach grammar, vocabulary, and other linguistic aspects to help students become able to express their ideas, feelings, emotions and experiences, and their knowledge in their final examination after reading the texts throughout the year. After I read this article, I started to rethink my past experiences and practices. This process of critical reflection has now led me to involve in questions related to identity and unjustified cultural dichotomy of self and other. I have once again recalled my experiences I struggled with issues of identity, language, and social inequity when I was a college instructor. I realize that my role as English teacher will not only to teach the language but also to situate our teaching in a sociohistorical and geopolitical context. This article has compelled me to start generating research in the area of critical pedagogy and ELT in Nepal in the future.
