The Pennsylvania State University

College of the Liberal Arts

Department of Applied Linguistics

Teacher identity of NNESTs (Non-native English-speaking teachers) and implications for teacher

education

A paper in

Teaching English as a Second Language

By

Yiwen Ou

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

Master of Arts

April 2019
Teacher identity of NNESTs

The following faculty members approve the MA paper entitled, Teacher's identity of NNESTs (Non-
native English-speaking teachers) and implications for teacher education, by Yiwen Ou:

________________________________ ____________________
Sharon S. Childs, PhD Date
Chair, MA TESL Program

_________________________________ ____________________
Karen E. Johnson Date
Kirby Professor in Language Learning and Applied Linguistics

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Teacher identity of NNESTs

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………….…….5

2. DEFINITIONS OF IDENTITY………………………………………………………………….…….5

3. DEFINITIONS OF TEACHER’S IDENTITY…………………………………………...……………6

4. CASE ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………………………………….7

Challenges from “NS myth”………………………………………………………………………7

Emotions…………………………………………………………………………………………11

Imagined identity and practiced identity…………………………………………………………14

My own experience as a NNEST……………………………………………………………...…16

5. IMPLICATIONS……………….......………………………………………………………………...18

6. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………………….19

References………………………………………………………………………………………………..22

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Abstract

This literature review explores how non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) establish their

legitimacy as language teachers in the contexts where the notion of the native speaker fallacy still

prevails. Seven cases of NNESTs are analyzed and discussed in three sections focusing on challenges

from “NS myth”, emotions and imagined identity. From their process of teacher professional identity

development, I identified some major issues in teacher identity research. Based on my analysis, I offer

some implications for teacher education.

Keywords: teacher identity, non-native English-speaking teachers, emotions.

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Introduction
Non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) constitute the majority of teachers of English of

speakers of other languages worldwide (Canagarajah, 1999). However, these teachers often feel marginalized in

the profession by the native speaker fallacy which is a long-standing notion that the native speakers are the

idealized teachers of English (Phillipson, 1992; Reis, 2011). In this fallacy, native speakers are perceived to speak

“unaccented” English, understand and use idiomatic expressions fluently, and completely navigate the culture of

at least one English-dominant society. As a result, many NNESTs have found themselves often implicitly, and

sometimes explicitly, discriminated against (TESOL 2006). This fallacy also contributes to NNEST “anxiety”

(Tickoo, 2007), that is, a sense of professional inadequacy that prevents many qualified NNESTs from becoming

confident instructors (Reis, 2011).

In response to this perspective of privileging native speaker status, researchers gradually began to take a

stance indicating that both NESTs and NNESTs have strengths and challenges.

Definitions of Identity

In applied linguistics research, identity is defined by many scholars, most of whom draw upon Norton

(2000). Norton (2000) defines identity as “how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that

relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future” (p.

5). Similarly, Blackledge and Pavlenko (2001) defined identity as a negotiation between how one sees oneself and

how one is seen by other people. These definitions signify that identity is not fixed but is a dynamic process of

emerging and becoming (He, 1995)

In language teaching, identity goes hand in hand with emotion (Benesch, 2012). As Roth (2007)

emphasized emotion in his definition that identity is byproducts of emotion, thus suggesting that emotion is

central to understanding the formation of identity. Wolfe and Costa (2017) also argue that emotion is associated

with identity and it bears a social dimension.

These definitions of identity help us understand how identity is conceptualized and what aspects are

focused on in identity research in the field of applied linguistics. To understand better about the identity of

NNESTs, definition of multiple categories of teacher identity will be discussed in next section.

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Definitions of Teacher’s Identity

Before introducing the definition of teacher’s identity, it is necessary to distinguish role and identity.

Britzman (1994) made a useful distinction between role and identity: Role is a public function often assigned

externally, whereas identity involves inner commitment. So being an L2 teacher requires the commitment of self

instead of only playing an assigned role in the classroom (Stuart & Kanno, 2011).

In general, a teacher’s identity could be defined as “how teachers learn to teach, how they teach, and who

they are as individuals and professionals” (Varghese, 2008, p.287). Compared with a student’s identity, the unique

aspect of a teacher’s identity is that it is often a combination of personal and professional identity (Danielewicz,

2001). Therefore, to understand teachers, we need to have a clearer sense of who they are as individuals and

professionals, and the two aspects are not separate. For teachers whose personal identity is different from a

culturally defined professional role, they could be struggling with the integration of the personal and the

professional (Zheng, 2017).

Similar to the construction and reconstruction process of identity that are mentioned in last section,

teacher’s professional and personal identities are also not fixed. The formation is a dual process of identification

and negotiation of meaning (Menard-Warwick, 2008). In this view, when teachers teach, they are negotiating and

renegotiating a sense of self in relation to the larger social world and reorganizing that relationship within the

multiple dimensions of their lives (Norton & McKinney, 2011). According to Lave and Wenger’s theory of

situated learning, “crafting identities is a social process, and becoming more knowledgeably skilled is an aspect of

participation in social practice” (Lave, 1996, p .157) NNESTs are all both English learners and English teachers,

so they are engaged in the project of becoming “language teachers” in particular communities of teachers and

learners (Kanno &Stuart, 2011). From this theory, we could see how identity and practice are intertwined with

each other. And in the communities, teacher identity is constructed and defined through interactions with group

members such as students, peer teachers and peer learners, which in turn affect beliefs, attitude and behaviors

(Zhang & Zhu, 2008). Wolff and Costa (2017) point out that changes in a teacher’s identity will ideally cause

modifications in teaching strategies, particularly if the teacher has to adjust to a new teaching context.

Based on these understandings of teachers’ identity and to support the development of NNESTs’

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professional identities, it is necessary to promote their awareness of how they position themselves professionally

and are positioned by others (e.g., students, institutions, the public discourse) in regards to the legitimacy and in

relation to the context where they work and live (Reis, 2011).

Case Analysis

Challenges from the “NS myth”

As mentioned in the introduction, NNESTs’ competence toward their role as language teachers is

challenged by the NS myth, and many of them often feel marginalized in the workplace. In this section, three cases

of NNESTs who struggled with their NNEST identities will be analyzed and compared to provide insights into the

development of NNEST teacher identity.

Reis (2011) investigates how a NNEST went from being a “blind believer” in the native language speaker

myth to challenging it and in doing so, empowering his students to resist the myth and become confident learners.

Reis’ main participant, Kang, was a Chinese male in his early thirties and a PhD student in an applied linguistics

program. When the study began, he had just finished his first year in the program. As part of his graduate

assistantship responsibilities, Kang was required to teach two concurrent academic writing classes for

international freshmen students at his university. Issues of professional expertise, confidence, and self-esteem

were involved in Kang’s professional identity as a NNEST. His beliefs, attitudes and feelings towards the NS

myth seemed ambivalent, ambiguous and incongruous.

Before participating in his PHD program, Kang was a “blind believer in the native language mode in

language learning” (Reis, 2011, p. 146). Nevertheless, through his engagement with academic readings,

meaningful discussions, critical reflection, and the modelling and support from peers, he gradually began to

challenge the NS myth and to see himself as an “expert user” of English as his additional language. Through this

process, his self-image as an English learner transferred from a “non-native speaker” to “expert user”. He then

took advantage of this experience and applied it to his teaching, which helped him to build rapport with students

and help them succeed in their own English acquisition. Specifically, he drew upon his experience as a L2 learner

to tell his students that he understood their struggles in L2 learning, and he would share his struggles as well as

successful learning experiences.

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Teacher identity of NNESTs

Whereas he succeeded in challenging the NS myth and gaining confidence in the early stage as a PHD,

his confidence in his teaching competence received a “blow “while he taught in Florida. A student wrote as a

remark in his/her course evaluation that “the ELF [English language institute] should hire only native speaker as

instructors” (Reis, 2011, p. 149). Considering that Kang’s students did not express any negative reactions to him

as an instructor, and his official end-of-semester course evaluation indicated that his students were extremely

satisfied with his teaching, Kang did not take that student’s comment personally. However, his self-doubt and

belief in the NS myth were reinforced, and he wrote in his journal that “it [the student’s comment] only shows

how the native speaker myth is deeply rooted in some of the L2 learners’ minds” (p. 149).

After that incident, Kang was gradually aware of the challenges facing NNESTs. When he stepped into

the classroom, he felt that students questioned his ability and validity as a teacher due to his non-native speaker

identity, and he felt that students expected a white person who spoke perfect English. He then realized that

language is in constant change with users being the ones who change the language and underwent a process of

internalizing the NS myth. This realization enabled him to be more comfortable in the classroom and he shared

this experience with his students. He told his students in an American pronunciation class that what they would

focus on was the ability to speak clearly and comprehensibly instead of trying to achieve the so-called American

accent. At the end of the study, Kang still at times suffered from linguistic insecurity and was ambivalent towards

the NS myth.

Kang’s professional identity as a legitimate NNEST was filled with tensions and contradictions, but he

never gave up making attempts to challenge it with the resources from his experience, academic papers and

interactions with the author. Moreover, he drew on his experience in challenging NS myth in his instructional

practice through which he attempted to empower his students to see themselves as expert speakers and users of

language.

From this case, we can see how social mediation and collaboration can stimulate the process of

conceiving and internalizing identity options, which leads to more professional agency and empowerment of

NNESTs. Moreover, the personal histories of teachers could be used as “teaching tools to explore both how

prevailing discourses shape our identities and what alternative discourses are available to reinvent ourselves in

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more empowering ways” (Simon-Maeda, 2004, p. 429). With these teaching tools, teachers would be able to help

L2 learner to situate themselves in broader relationships of power and make attempt to resist oppression (Hawkins

& Norton, 2009).

In Kang’s case, he was aware of his strengths as a NNEST during his PHD teaching even though he was

challenged by some incidents. However, in a study by Park (2012), the participant, Xia, had strong belief in the

NS myth and found it hard to find power in the English language, which led to struggles that differed from Kang’s

experiences. Park (2012) examined how a NNEST’s learning and teaching experiences before and during her

TESOL program enriched or disempowered her identity as an English learner and teacher. Data provided in the

study highlighted disconnectedness between her experience in China, her MEd TESOL program, and her

practicum teaching experience.

The participant, Xia, was finishing her MEd in TESOL at an American university when the study began.

Her identity as an English language learner was strong before her participation in the TESOL program, and the

English language education she received in China was predominantly test-driven. She did realize, however, that

there was a lack of opportunity to actually use English in the Chinese English language education system. After

she came to the US, her linguistic identity was transformed. By comparing her English with other native speakers,

she began to question what she had accomplished in language learning and desired to sound like a native speaker.

At the same time, she believed that language was closely associated with social capital and power, so she felt

powerless and perceived herself to have a lower status in her TESOL program due to her NNEST identity. When

she applied for a job as a test scorer in her university, the recruiter who identified herself as a Chinese American

(an immigrant native speaker) simply assumed that Xia was not qualified candidate because of her NNEST

identity. She got the job in the end, but her work experience reinforced her belief in NS myth, in her interview

with the researcher, she expressed, “How could I teach other people English when my English is not perfect?” (p.

138). She believed that one had to claim an NES (Native English speaker) identity to gain competence as a

language teacher.

Xia’s EL identity began to blossom in her practicum teaching experience, and her level of confidence

increased due to having a supportive and encouraging mentor teacher. She realized that she would always have to

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work hard to establish legitimacy or credibility for herself as a qualified NNEST because English was not her first

language. At that time, she gradually realized the strengths of being a NNEST. She recognized that, being a non-

native speaker of English, she could utilize cultural and linguistic experience in her pedagogical practice which

was at least as important as being recognized as native speaker identity.

From Xia’s experience, we can see stress and lack of confidence due to her awareness of her identity as a

NNEST. Yet we can see the importance of a mentored field experience in the TESOL program and how the

support from mentor teacher transformed her beliefs.

In the cases of Kang and Xia, they struggled with their fight against the NS myth and endeavored to gain

competence as a NNEST. Similarly, in a study (Varghese et al., 2005), a Mexican woman, Marc, enrolled in a MA

TESOL program in the US also experienced struggling with her NNEST identity. She did not directly express her

belief in the NS myth; instead, she revealed the tension she felt with being a language learner and teacher at the

same time.

This research (Varghese et al., 2005) paints a very different picture than the research of Park (2012) and

Reis (2011). His participant, Marc, found that there were few NNES (Non-native English speaker) graduate

students in the program, and the faculty, administrative staff and teachers in the university’s Intensive English

Program were native speakers. Being in this environment, she was very conscious of her identity as a NNEST

which caused her tension and lack of confidence in her teaching. She expressed that she thought teacher should be

“ahead of…students”, and she was very nervous about consulting her colleagues on language questions because

“after all, I’m an ESL teacher, I should know, shouldn’t I?” (p.26)

Marc’s awareness of the “negative” association of the NNEST membership was increased during her

teaching practicum. Her mentor teacher was willing to accept Marc as a novice ESL teacher, but the mentor

teacher was struggling with how to help Marc navigate her emerging teacher identity and her self-identification as

an ESL student. When Marc was teaching, her mentor teacher had a tendency to interrupt and take charge of the

class. These interruptions not only caused March to question her competence as a new teacher in the class but also

emphasized Marc’s status as a non-native speaker of English.

Marc’s identity of an English teacher began to shift when she attended a TESOL Convention where she

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had the chance to meet and talk with other NNESTs involved in the NNEST Caucus. For Marc, this experience

allowed her to focus on the positive distinctions between this group and others. She felt supported and

comfortable in that community because in that circle she was not “the only one”.

In Marc’s case, her development of professional identity provides an example of how the “priorities and

understanding of self are influenced by our social identifications and self-categorizations” (p. 28). It also signified

that it is important for NNESTs to find ways to forge a positive identity in order to avoid the risk of “identity

crisis” (Braine, 1999).

From these three cases, the novice teacher’s awareness of his or her NNEST identity and belief in the NS

myth led to the struggles of the NNESTs, but each struggle was triggered by a different source. Kang’s “blow”

came from the comments of a student. Xia and Marc’s challenges came from comparing their language ability to

NNESTs around them. Furthermore, all three teachers mentioned how teaching experience contributed to the

transformation of their NNEST identity. Kang and Xia’s professional identity shifted through their teaching

experiences. Each discovered that their experience and language learning history helped them to understand L2

learners more, and Kang shared his experience with students to empower them to challenge the notion of

“standard English”. Xia and Marc both experienced their practicum teaching with the support of a mentor teacher,

however their growth from it differed depending on the support from the mentor teacher. Xia’s mentor teacher

provided her with helpful suggestions and acted as a successful model for Xia, which motivated Xia worked hard

to gain competence as a NNEST. As for Marc, her development of teacher identity is largely supported by

professor and peer teachers in the program.

Emotions

In the last section, the influence of NS myth to the formation of teacher identity is analyzed. As emotion

also plays a crucial role in teacher’s development, teacher’s emotion will be discussed with two studies (Costa &

Wolfe, 2017; Song, 2016)

Costa and Wolfe (2017) examined how a NNEST was confronted with numerous emotional challenges in

her first year in a U.S. MA TESOL program. They investigated how these struggles impacted her teacher identity

development and identified how her growth as an educator was evident in her pedagogical practice. The

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participant, Puja, from Bangladesh, she was pursuing a two-year MA TESOL program in the US at the time of the

study.

Before Puja came to the US, there were very limited resources for her to both learn and teach English,

however English was so important for her that she could not imagine a life without teaching and learning English.

As such, she was fully invested in learning English and English teaching in her master’s program. When she

began her learning in the program, her confidence as an English learner was challenged. She was aware of her

identity as a non-native speaker, and she was particularly nervous about her non-native-like pronunciation. She

considered accent to be related to power and said, “People in power are perceived as speaking normal, unaccented

English.” (p. 82). These beliefs resulted in a form of self-deprecation which influenced Puja’s teacher emotions

and identity. During her practicum teaching, she encountered a situation that her ESL students were interested in

learning idiomatic expressions closely related to American culture, but she was not comfortable to teach it as a

newcomer to the US.

Faced with these challenges, Puja received help from the professors and other faculty in her program and

that helped her to rebuild her self- confidence. During this process, her NNEST identity was enriched. She learned

that she was more than an authoritative teaching figure in the classroom which was the image of a teacher in her

home country, and she began to realize that she could also be a friend and helper with her students. This shift in

her development and extension of teacher identity led to Puja’s rethinking of her pedagogical approaches. She

embraced more student-centered approaches and she adopted a new implicit way of correcting errors of students

to help them “save face”. This change was due to her awareness of students’ emotions.

In Puja’s experience, she encountered much emotional turmoil at the start of her master program. But she

showed that she was able to withstand the emotional stands placed on NNESTs like her but also thrive in her new

teaching environment. The external help from the professor and other peers, her investment in language learning

and teaching, and her positive attitude towards identity and pedagogical development all help her to deal with

negative emotions.

When NNESTs experience feelings of insecurity because of their language competence and a belief that

teachers are to be all-knowing, their approaches to deal with the negative emotions can be very different. Song

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(2016) examined how teachers confront the sacred story (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995) which is a cultural

assumption of teachers as all-knowing, and how vulnerability (Zembylas, 2002) affects teachers’ development of

pedagogy and self-transformation. Zembylas (2002) defined vulnerability as a great amount of emotional labor

that leads to teacher isolation. Participants in this study included five secondary English language teachers in

South Korea, and the study highlighted the stories among these teachers and the study abroad returnee students in

their classrooms.

When they began to teach English classes with these returnee students, all the teachers admitted that they

felt pressured and overwhelmed due to the existence of those students in their classroom. Their sensibility and

negative feelings were caused by their perceptions of their own English skills and the sacred story of the teachers

as all-knowing. Some teachers found it stressful to speak English in front of the returnee students because they

felt their English competence was inferior to that of the students.

From the interviews with the teachers, Song (2016) found out that their emotions were significantly

influenced by the returnee students and they showed different attitudes towards behaviors in the classroom of the

returnee students and the other students. When a participant, Sungho, talked about the students’ nonparticipation,

he considered those returnee students to be disinterested in the classroom activity, while he considered other non-

participated students to be lack of understanding and skills. Those teachers’ attitude and emotion affected their

teaching practice and identity formation. A teacher in the interviewed mentioned that when returnee student

showed acknowledgement, she thought she had taught effectively. Some teachers said that when they encountered

something that did not know or a question they could not answer in the classroom, they felt embarrassed and

incompetent as teachers, and they tried to suppress those negative emotions and show positive emotions in the

class. Song (2016) concluded that, “their protective vulnerability, profoundly affects teacher identity, limiting

pedagogical practices and the teachers’ relationship with students” (p. 644).

Later in this study, those teachers experienced open vulnerability by contesting the “sacred story”, but it

does come from their improvement of language skills. Those moments of transformation happened when they

recognized their emotions, identified the sources and understood the effect of them. They gradually began to

understand the returnee students’ difficulties with English language learning and were empathetic about them,

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which helped those teachers to build a better relationship with those students. The teachers still felt vulnerable,

but they learned to manage their emotions and be open to students. They no longer perceived the classroom as a

space for teachers to deliver knowledge but began to see it as a place for teachers and students to improve their

language skills together.

Participants in both Costa and Wolfe (2017) and Song’s (2016) studies negatively evaluated their English

language skills. Puja (Costa & Wolfe, 2017) received encouragement and guidance from professors and peers,

from which she recognized her strengths and utilized her teaching experiences in her home country as pedagogical

resources. The Korean teachers in Song’s (2016) study believed that they should suppressed all their negative

feelings and be teachers who knew everything. These perceptions led to different teacher identity development

which indicates that it is necessary to educate NNESTs about the strengths of being NNEST and help them

understand that “the sacred story” is not true.

Both studies illustrate the importance for teachers to recognize the emotions and develop the ability to

reflect on and negotiate emergent challenges. The identity and emotions of teachers are neither stable nor constant

(Kanno & Stuart, 2011). Therefore, as Song (2016) pointed out, the process of dealing with emotions is a dynamic

one in which teachers make sense of their own emotions as they seek possible alternatives by confronting and

transforming their emotions.

Imagined and practiced identity

During the formation of teacher’s professional identity, some teachers may experience transformation from

their imagined identity to practical identity. The two usually differ because the former derive from imagination and

the latter from real-world interaction in communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). In this section, two studies

(Barkhuizen, 2016; Xu, 2012) will be analyzed.

Xu (2012) investigates how four novice teachers’ professional identities changed from their initial

imagined identities formed in the preservice-stage of their teaching to practiced identities constructed as novices

in the English language classroom. At the beginning of the study, the four Chinese ESOL teachers were in their

first year of teaching in K-12 schools in China. Before they became teachers, in their imagined identities, each

portrayed herself in a different way; as a language expert (Ingrid), a teacher who helped students consolidate what

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they have learned (Carol), a spiritual guide (Fiona), and a learning facilitator (Aurora).

During their teaching practice in that school, their professional identities underwent notable

transformations in their novice teaching experiences and were shaped in large part by the institutional pressures of

school rules and regulations. Ingrid intended to enhance her language skills to be a good teacher. However,

through her understanding of the criteria used by the school to select teachers for awards, she found that it was not

important to have good language skills or teaching competence to win the award. This understanding led her to

develop a negative view of English language teaching in this context, and she revealed that she would quit

teaching when she found it intolerable. As for Carol and Fiona, their realization of imagined identity was

conflicted with the teaching tasks assigned by the schools. Carol felt unable to spend enough class time on

knowledge consolidation, while Fiona found unable to be a spiritual guide and still perform the expected teaching

tasks. In the end, they described themselves to be “a person busy catching up with the schedule” (p. 574) and a

“routine performer” (p. 575). Aurora’s case was different from the other three as her imagined identity was that of

facilitator, an educator who through practice and courage, could become more competent with facilitating student

learning.

In Xu’s (2012) study, each participant acknowledged a difference between their imagined and actual

teacher identity, and the construction of teacher identity was mediated by teaching practice. Thus, Xu (2012)

suggests that teacher educators help novice teachers become more aware of their imagined communities and the

importance of perseverance and patience with themselves as learners of teaching. He also emphasizes the

important of helping novice teachers recognize that they have agency in their learning.

Teacher identity is not constant nor stable. Barkhuizen (2016) captured the dynamic nature of teaching

identity in a nearly nine-year longitudinal study investigating the imagined identity of an English teacher in New

Zealand. From this study, he illustrates how an NNEST’s imagined teacher identity could influence a teacher

throughout a teaching career.

The participant, Sela, was an immigrant from the Pacific Island of Tonga. She immigrated to New

Zealand as a young adult, and she had the intention of being an English teacher shortly after she came to the

university. Initially, Sela’s imagined teacher identity was that of an English language teacher amongst members of

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her own Tongan immigrant community. She imagined herself designing and teaching a curriculum based on the

needs of Tongan immigrants instead of one more appropriate to a general class of adult learners.

During Sela’s teaching practicum, a component of the graduate education diploma she enrolled in after

completing her MA TESOL degree, she encountered a shift in her NNEST identity. She completed her practicum

in that high school dominated by white teachers, and one day she was recognized as a cleaner in the kitchen

because of her Pacific Island (Tonga) appearance. As a student teacher, she already was positioned as less

powerful compared with full-time, experienced teachers, but because of her appearance, what she was identified

was an immigrant, a non-white cleaning woman rather than an English language teacher.

Sela later found a teaching position in a privileged high school. The school was still very “white”, and she

was “the only Pacific” islander teacher at the school when she started there. But in this school, she was recognized

as an immigrant and qualified English teacher. Although she felt insecure when teaching students who were native

speakers of English, but she was confident because she felt part of “a very nice community” (p. 674). She said

that her colleagues were helpful and willing to share resources with her, and she never felt discriminated against

or positioned as inferior to her peers or the students.

Sela’s NNEST’s identity was shaped by her teaching context as well as her own agency and in spite of

her initial experience, Sela imagined teacher identity eventually emerged and developed through her lived

teaching practice. Sela never tried to distance herself from her community due to her success, but she has become

a role model in her community

Based on these two studies (Barkhuizen, 2016; Xu, 2012), we can see NNESTs struggling with their

realization of their imagined teacher identities, which indicates the importance of recognition and self-reflection

on imagined identity in identity formation.

My own experience as a NNEST

As a NNEST majoring in a MA TESL program in a US university, I am a member of the community that I

am researching. I have experienced struggles with the issues that I am exploring, therefore I would like to

integrate my experience as a case study. I will focus on my MA TESL practicum teaching experience.

Before I came to pursue the master’s degree, I had one-year experience as a teaching assistant in a private

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English language institution in China as well as several short-term internships as an IELTS and TOEFL teacher.

From these experiences, I gained personal fulfillment and a sense of achievement, which motivated me to pursue

a master’s degree in TESL. To gain more pedagogical knowledge was one reason that I chose the master program.

During the classes that I took in the first year, I gradually understood that the NS myth was not real, and

that English language teachers do not need to have “perfect” English to be competent teachers of English. I

learned useful and thought-provoking concepts and theories about language teaching, and I gradually understood

my strengths as a NNEST. Therefore, I believed that the pedagogical knowledge I now had would help me to

design and teach successful classes.

However, in the first week of my practicum teaching, I realized that the real teaching context is much

more complex than the imagined community of learners I had envisioned. I thought I was prepared with my many

strengths and my creativity, but the truth was that I could barely find my position and authority in the classroom. I

found myself challenged by the questions raised by my mentor teacher during the class, and I felt that I was not

confident in providing examples for students’ assignments. I did not feel like a teacher or even a teaching

assistant, in my teaching journal I called myself an “outsider student” during that period. I had a chance to “lead

an activity” in the second week, however I was afraid and did not know how to design an interactive activity. So,

the activity became a teacher-fronted “presentation”.

After that, my developmental goal was to practice and improve my instructional language and tried to

build rapport between me and the students. I took actions to volunteer to send reminding emails to students,

arrived earlier to class to talk with them, and I provided extra meetings to students in need after class. At the same

time, I seized every opportunity given by my mentor to design and led class activities. And I did a written

reflection after each week, which helped me to recognize my strengths and weaknesses. During the process, I

gradually transformed from a teacher who was only comfortable giving lectures to a teacher that challenge

teaching comfort zone to design interactional discussion-based activity to students.

I was still struggling with finding my own ways of teaching and learned pedagogical approaches through

my teaching activity, and I received much guidance from my mentor teacher. With the encouragement from my

mentor and professor, I had many opportunities to implement activities that I had fully designed. From the

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teaching outcome and my own reflections, there is a difference in my identity as NNEST, and my classroom is

closer to the classroom I had imagined myself to lead.

Implications

The first implication for teacher education is to provide more practice opportunities for novice teachers.

For example, field experiences such as tutoring and teaching experiences are important in the development of

their teacher identity. As Tsui (2007) pointed out, teacher educators and mentors should understand that the

process of teacher’s identity formation is complex, and participation in practice plays a crucial role in the

formation process. It is a process through which teachers develop professional competence and have their

competence recognized.

In addition to field experiences, NNESTs can benefit by being empowered to confront the NS myth. One

way to help novice teachers with this issue is to guide them to realize their strengths to help them develop positive

professional identities. NNESTs have many strengths to bring to the language learning classroom including shared

language learning experiences with other L2 learners. They can share their experiences to encourage student

learning (Reis, 2011). In doing so, they may build a rapport with their L2 learners which in turn, may motivate

their learners. Another important strength of NNESTs is their ability to explain and teach English grammar due to

their language learning experience as non-native speakers (Medgyes, 1999; Park, 2012). Besides knowing the

strengths, it is also important for NNESTs to understand that English as a language is not owned by any culture or

the people from any culture, it is in constant change with users of the language being the ones who make changes

(Reis, 2011).

Another implication from NNEST identity research is that attention should be paid to providing adequate

emotional support for NNESTs. That support can include informal conversations with peer teachers as well as

formal opportunities to meet and discuss with other teachers. When NNESTs have the opportunity to work with

mentor teachers, it is helpful if mentor teachers are also aware of the emotional needs of the NNESTs that may be

different from novice language teachers for whom English is their L1.

Finally, teacher educators can attend more consciously to assisting the formation of novice NNESTs’

imagined identity (Xu, 2012). This approach helps the novice NNESTs recognize their emerging teacher identity

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Teacher identity of NNESTs

and facilitate their transformation from an imagined identity to a practical one. However, it is also important for

teacher educators and NNESTs to recognize that identity formation is dynamic and constantly changing.

Therefore, it is important to empower teachers to negotiate their identity throughout their teaching practice.

According to Barkhuizen (2016), one way to support teachers is through self-reflection as he found through his

research with Sela. Sela commented that self-reflection made her “think about how far she had come and about

her current practice, and even got her thinking about studying further one day in the future” (p. 679). In this way,

NNESTs can learn to reflect on and negotiate challenges by themselves. Both approaches can support NNESTs

emerging identity development and can be integrated into teacher education programs.

There is another implication drawn from my own experience. As a practice teacher, I would like to have

some comments from students. Although practice teachers could get feedback of teaching from students’ learning

outcome and students’ reaction, they may not clear about how and what students find useful from their teaching.

Therefore, I would advise teacher training programs to help practice teacher get feedback from students on their

strengths and weaknesses. Gaining feedback from students’ perspective help teachers to gain a more thorough and

comprehensive understanding of the impact of their teaching. It is true that students will tend to focus on the

strengths instead of weaknesses of the instructor due to their worries of grades, however it is also necessary for

novice teacher to gain students’ perspectives on their strengths.

Conclusion

The research studies in this literature review investigated how belief in NS myth, emotion and imagined

identity influence the formation of teacher identity. Research (Barkhuizen, 2016; Park, 2012; Varghese et al.,

2005; Reis, 2011; Song, 2016) indicates that many NNESTs believe in the NS myth or feel linguistic insecurity

until they learn through their experiences that it is, in fact, a myth. Some teachers (Reis, 2011; Park, 2012) gained

the belief of NS myth due to the feedback from students and employer, while some teachers (Barkhuizen, 2016;

Varghese et al., 2005; Song, 2016) felt insecure about their NNEST identity or “imperfect”/non-native English

when they compared themselves with other native speaker or speakers with overseas experience. From these

cases, we could see the NS myth as a long-standing fallacy is still believed by many students, teachers and

employers (TESOL, 2006). It brought insecurity and anxiety to NNEST, and NNESTs’ chance of employment

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Teacher identity of NNESTs

maybe influenced due to their non-native accent (Clark & Paran, 2007; Mahboob, et al. 2004; Tickoo, 2007).

Therefore, support for NNESTs who are susceptible to the native speaker fallacy or NS myth is greatly needed

(Zheng, 2017).

Another major issue is the support provided by the MA TESL/TESOL programs during practicum

teaching. Research (Barkhuizen, 2016; Varghese et al., 2005; Park, 2012; Costa & Wolfe, 2007) highlights the

challenges encountered by NNESTs and their growth during the practicum experience which signifies the

importance of practicum teaching in a MA TESOL program. Research (Park, 2012; Costa & Wolfe, 2007) shows

that emotional and pedagogical support from mentors and professors influence the development of novice

teachers’ identity positively, and mentor’s distrust may lead to teacher’s lack of confidence in legitimacy

(Varghese et al., 2005). These cases indicate that it is necessary to provide guidance to the mentor teacher about

how to support and educate novice teachers.

As for emotion, I analyzed two studies (Costa & Wolfe, 2007; Song, 2016) focused on the emotions of

NNESTs, however not only teachers in these two studies were experiencing negative emotions from teaching.

When the qualification as a teacher was challenged, teachers in the studies (Varghese et al., 2005; Park, 2012;

Reis, 2011) showed different extent of vulnerability that analyzed by Song (2016), and most of them showed

anxiety about their NNEST identity. Considering this, it is important to provide emotional support to novice

teachers (Johnson & Worden, 2014).

Imagined identity was examined by Xu (2012) and Barkuizen (2016), but this theme does not only

emerge in the two studies. As for the origin of imagined identity, some teachers (Xu, 2012) gained it from their

“teacher model”. However, Sela (Barkhuizen, 2016)’s imagined identity formed by her lived experience and sense

of belonging to her community. While imagined identity of some teachers in the studies (Varghese et al., 2005;

Song, 2016) derived from their teacher’s image in culture. Marc (Varghese et al., 2005) just came to the US, her

image as a teacher was how teacher was perceived in her home country, who was the authority in the classroom

and should keep distance from the students. But during her teaching experience, she gradually became more than

authority but also friend of students. From here I saw transformation from imagined identity to practical identity.

Similarly, Song (2016)’s participants underwent transformation of imagined identity of teacher who knew-all and

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Teacher identity of NNESTs

suppressed negative emotions to a teacher identity that was more positive. With these struggles of NNESTs, due

attention should be paid to help them recognize and negotiate the process of transformation between imagined

identity and practical identity.

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Teacher identity of NNESTs

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