Beyond existing psychological constructs such as intelligence, personality, and motivation, Sternberg and Spear-Swerling (1998) use the term, “personal navigation” as a metaphor for understanding why some people find success in adul life and others do n
to a person’s control of his or her voyage through life, including goals, plans, beliefs in his or her own capability and ability to overcome obstacles effectively.
While navigating one’s life, a person encounters different obstacles; Sternberg
and Sper-Sw n personal
navigation: visibility obstacles, resource obstacles, barrier obstacles, resistance obstacles, and sabotage obstacles. As I look back at our personal navigations as NNESs in the United States, I find t ell illustrate NNES’s experiences in the field of TESOL.
Visibility obstacles are analogous t ss or fog, and occur when one
finds oneself unable to see wh er-Swerling, p. 226).
Many NNESs, like Kuriko and I, for exam n initial goal to improve English teaching in our home countries, come to the U. S. to advance ourselves. However, because of different teaching pedagogies and expectations in ESL and EFL settings,
we ofte me
quipment, or the v
l to
English teacher, we leave our home countries, live in a new territory for improving erling illustrate five different types of obstacles one may face i
hese five metaphors w
o “darkne
ere one is going” (Sternberg & Sp ple, with a
n struggle with how to apply ESL pedagogies to EFL settings in our ho countries and sometimes find ourselves unable to see a clear path for our goals. Although ESL pedagogies might be applicable or transferable to EFL teaching, without explicit discussion, NNESs might not be able to see a route clearly.
Resource obstacles are analogous to “lacking proper navigational e ehicle one would need in order to make progress in the terrain one will encounter” (Sternberg & Sper-Swerling, p. 226). NNESs might not have capita start their career due to lack of resources needed to get where they want to go. For example, from the narratives in this study, we learned that in order to be a better
our own English and pursue knowledge and techniques in teaching English; however, within the dominant society, if TESOL educational course design and pedagogy are
not con n NNESs
might n
or land-mass
barriers Sternberg &
Sper-Swerling, p. 225). From the narratives in this study, for instance, we found that a non-native speaker, like Wen-Lin, Kuriko and Xuen, might have all the intellectual abilities required for a career as an ESL teacher, but be miserable because of facing other obstacles such as language ideology or racial prejudice. A non-native speaker might be a talented language teacher, but be unable to tolerate different educational or cultural differences or political obstacles. These barrier obstacles in an NNES ESL teacher’s life might include self-rejection that comes from low self-confidence due to the misconception that a native speaker is an ideal language teacher, and rejections from others due to visible appearance or non-native-like speech which was judged by the dominant society with racial or ethnic prejudice, ensuring that opportunities go to the most ‘qualified’ native speakers.
Resis rney, which
do not
able to
survive in the English dominated society. Without support from the system, once cerned with NNESs’ particular linguistic and cultural needs, the
ot have enough resources for what they need.
Barrier obstacles are analogous to “mountains in land journeys in sea journeys, which block one from proceeding any further” (
tance obstacles are analogous to “heavy snow or rain in a jou
block one’s path but, rather, make it harder to follow the path” (Sternberg & Sper-Swerling, p. 226). For example, although Wen-Lin, Kuriko and Xuen are get a position, from their narratives we learn that they need to work twice as hard or even do other things unrelated to teaching to prove their abilities in teaching and to
NNES ESL teachers have done many other things to prove their ability, the attractiveness of teaching might start to decrease and they might leave the work.
rformance might make the NNESs’ path to success is tes Vietnam do , r Sabotage obstacles are “attempts by others to render more difficult one’s progress along the path of one’s choosing” (Sternberg & Sper-Swerling, p. 226). In the workplace, people are competing for the same or similar resources, so some more powerful ones might take advantage of their power and resources to sabotage the progress of other people. For example, NESs’ negative reaction toward NNESs’ linguistic limitations and teaching pe
more difficult.
There is a small but growing body of literature focusing on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of being a non-native English speaker in the field of TESOL (Medgyes, 1994; Samimy & Brutt-Griffler, 1999), the attitudes of ESL and EFL students toward NNES teachers (Amin, 1997; Tang, 1997), and the struggles and triumphs of non-native professionals (Brain, 1999; Thomas, 1999). However, there little information regarding how teacher preparation programs are incorporating curricula related to non-native professionals in the TESOL field. Research indica that NNES teacher candidates who came from a variety of countries, such as
, Korea, China, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Spain, Iran, Taiwan, and Japan, represent over 70% of the program enrollment (Kamhi-Stein, 1999). How teacher educators address the issues of credibility when they struggle in the program and how do teacher educators help NNESs to face the challenges they will encounte because of linguistic and cultural differences? How do teacher educators prepare NNES teacher candidates professionally?
From the narratives in this study, we learn how the misconception of “native speaker fallacy,” which is a belief that a native speaker is an ideal language teacher, has led us to overlook some very important issues in preparing professional ESL teachers. The term NNES seems to become a negative identity that labels NNES teacher
it should not be equated with language profici
s as inferiors in comparison with the term, NES. Pasternak and Bailey (2004) argue that without the proper professional preparation and the experience of learning new languages themselves, NESs may have declarative knowledge about knowing the target language, target culture and how to use the language, but may lack procedural knowledge about how to teach the language in culturally appropriate ways. For example, it is not unusual to hear untrained NESs respond to students’ grammar questions by saying, “I don’t know why. That’s just the way we say it.” This is evidence the NES lacks procedural knowledge about how to explicitly teach the language.
On the other hand, given years of study and formal instruction, NNESs may have much stronger declarative and procedure knowledge about the target language and how to teach the language. Pasternak and Bailey further argue professionalism is not the same thing as nativeness, and
ency. Neither a native nor a nonnative speaker without any formal training can be said to be professionally prepared. Like language proficiency, professional
preparation is a continuum in a teacher’s professional development. It’s possible for teachers to become relatively less prepared if they don’t keep up with new
developments and research and are unable to meet students’ changing needs.
Both NNESs and NESs need training for their professionalism. Howe specific obstacles and needs described above, NNESs need a different curriculum
ver, with
design