ESTRATEGIA DIDÁCTICA PARA EL DESARROLLO DE COMPETENCIAS Gestión para el autoempleo o establecimiento de una microempresa

The examples of Othering evidenced in this section seem primarily intended to distinguish a characteristic of one’s own identity within a group. The first two examples in this section (excerpts 151 and 152) demonstrate how participants use an Us/Them dichotomy to align themselves with natives/ non-natives as well as a teacher/ learner dichotomies. For instance, when a non-native participant says “we do have a lot of non-native speakers with thick accent”, she may be associating with both non-natives as well as with teachers. Similarly, by identifying herself as “an ESL student”, another non-native participant presents a hybrid identity of herself as a non-native as well as a language learner (despite the fact that she is in a teacher training program). The participant subsequently essentializes her own group (the group of non-native

14 _{It is perhaps important to note that although the participant may have been aware of questions about learners from}

earlier in the survey, this comment was not left in response to questions about classroom use but instead as a response to the survey question “Based solely on the group of speakers' language abilities (i.e., not the topic or quality of recording), following the conversation was [easy/difficult]”.

speakers) and then speaks for all (Chinese) L2 English speakers as whole, describing what “we” prefer to hear in a classroom.

151 FG 1, MA-Nov (NNS), commenting on Dialog 1:

Sheryl: […] … manicured, but in real conversation it’s not like that. And we do

have a lot of non-native speakers with thick accent

152 FG 4, MA-Nov (NNS), commenting on Dialog 1:

Ruby: Hm. Well I would saying being a ESL student myself, um, if you want to

use kind of recording in the classroom, we would like to use something like

from a native speaker. […]

However, participants themselves most likely do not perceive these identities as static representations of their Self. Numerous additional examples of both native/ non-native and teacher/ student Othering throughout the data demonstrate how these categorical boundaries are not distinct. For instance, in the next set of comments, Participant Ruby positions herself as a teacher rather than as a student. Also evident in these excerpts is how participants use a generic “you” to indicate teachers, a group that they likely associate with. This generic second-person pronoun functions as an agent who teaches students. In the following set of excerpts,

participants distinguish themselves from students through their role as a teacher.

153 FG 4, MA-Adv (NS) and MA-Nov (NNS), commenting on Dialog 1:

Ruby: […] if we have to use this kind of material, we use the thing from the native

speaker. We don’t use it.

Daria: [Maybe you’d use a higher level in this conve-, in this conversation. And

they have to analyze it.

Ruby: Because you want to teach student the correct way how you say it.

Daria: [Correct way.

Yeah. That was my .. comment.

154 FG 4, MA-Nov (NS) and MA-Adv (NS), commenting on Dialog 3:

Ella: And I was gonna say youcould use it as, um, a way to teach students about

the phrases like how you get sucked into something ‘cause you know a lot of English learners won’t be able to understand the context of, of the that, but to-

Mary: [They take it literally, what the word means.

Ella: Yeah. And you could use it as an introduction for other .. phrases, and that.

Also evident in excerpt 153 is how Participant Ruby, a non-native, associates the native

group with the correct way. Her own group becomes the Other, or “the wrong way” (as opposed

to “the correct way”, in her words). Thus, even though Ruby positions herself as a teacher who knows “the correct way” to teach students, she distinguishes herself from the native speaker group that is supposedly in possession of this correctness.

At times, native participants use the plural pronoun “we” to indicate their own positioning within the native/ non-native dichotomy. Participants in these examples position themselves within an Us/Them worldview that distinguishes between what “we” (native speakers) do and what “they” (non-native speakers) do. Such a distinction is noteworthy primarily because these participants are all highly proficient, pre-service teachers in the same training program, yet they distinguish themselves based on nativeness.

155 FG 3, MA-Nov (NS), commenting on Dialog 3:

Susan: So, I really thought that they were native speakers. And they, they spoke over

each other. .. Which .. we have a tendency to do.

156 FG 3, PhD, MA-Adv & MA-Nov (NS & NNS), commenting on Dialog 3:

Peter:  be-, because e-, every bit, you can’t have those .. mumbled .. we o-, we’re

native speakers .. and I’m so, so sorry for you guys <indicating NNSs in

group> 

Caba: M-hm.

Peter:  we mumble all the time. 

Susan: Yes.

Participant Peter’s approach excludes non-natives from his identification with his native speaker Self, an Us/Them distinction which could perhaps be rephrased as Us/You since non- native speakers are also present. In fact, he highlights the distinction, contrasting his in-group (natives) with the out-group, “you guys” (non-natives).