The native speaker fallacy in english teachers recruitment practices

Texto completo

(1)Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !1. The Native Speaker Fallacy in English Teachers' Recruitment Practices: Voices of Resistance within a Social Network. Yeison Freddy Martinez Cristancho. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. School of Science and Education. The Master’s Program in Applied Linguistics in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. Bogotá, D.C., Colombia 2018.

(2) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !2. The Native Speaker Fallacy in English Teachers’ Recruitment Practices: Voices of Resistance within a Social Network. Yeison Freddy Martinez Cristancho. Thesis Director: Pilar Mendez Rivera Ph.D. A thesis submitted as a requirement to obtain the degree of M.A. in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. School of Science and Education. The Master’s Program in Applied Linguistics in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. Bogotá, D.C., Colombia 2018.

(3) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !3. Note of acceptance. Thesis Director:. Pilar Mendez Rivera, PhD. Name. Jury:. Sandra Ximena Bonilla, PhD. Name. Jury:. Yeraldine Aldana Gutiérrez, M.A Name.

(4) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !4. Acuerdo 19 de 1988 del consejo superior Universitario. Artículo 177: “La Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable por las ideas expuestas en esta tesis”..

(5) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !5. Acknowledgements. The author thanks the professors’ team at the Master’s program in Applied Linguistics to teaching English as a foreign language for these two years of academic support. I extend gratitude to Pilar Mendez, Ph.D for her counseling and work directing this thesis..

(6) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !6. Abstract This study looks into local English teachers’ problematizing perceptions around the native speaker fallacy and its role in recruitment practices for English teachers in Bogotá, within the context of digital discussions in two social network groups. The purpose was to understand from a critical perspective, how non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs) as digital users, perceived and problematized native-speakerism. It examines how the local English language teachers (ELT) users interacted, discussed, posted and replied to other users; bringing forth their stances towards scenarios deriving from the native vs. non-native speaker dichotomy. In doing so, I sought to characterize emerging resistance or accommodation practices stemming from such positioning and problematizing views. Through a qualitative, descriptive and interpretive approach supported in digital ethnography and web content analysis, I elicited, analyzed and interpreted ten naturally occurring discussion threads from 2014 to 2018 where users shared, externalized and reacted towards native-speakerism beliefs within two Facebook ELT groups. Findings revealed that local teachers problematized the fallacy by questioning its monetization effects in the ELT practice, by reflecting on their struggles as Colombian English teachers and by contesting its standardization in the way English teachers are employed. The study concluded that NNEST users used the social network groups to resist stereotyping, discrimination, injustice and control when they posted, replied and engaged in discussions to support or reject beliefs around native-speakerism. Consequently, they revealed their aspirations, frustrations, opinions and ideas to challenge perceived effects in the way students, institutions and recruiters regard on local English teachers. These findings contribute to the study of English teachers' subject construction as subjected to these practices and their effects. Keywords: native-speakerism, ELT, recruitment, resistance, NEST, NNEST, problematizing, dichotomy, native speaker fallacy..

(7) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !7. Table of Contents. Introduction …………………………..……………………………………………………. 10 Rationale……………………………………………………….………………………..……11 Statement of the problem …………………………………………………………12 Research questions and objectives ………………………………………………………… . 18 Literature Review……………………….……………………………………………….… 19 The Native Speaker Fallacy in ELT………………………………………………..,….…… 20 Teachers’ Resistance:What is seen and what is unseen……..………………………………. 23 Native-speakerism in ELT Recruitment…………………………………….……….………. 26 Research Design …………………..………………………………………….…………..…30 Type of study …………………………………………………………….……….………… 30 Setting …..……………………………………………………….….………………………..31 Profile of group participants …………………………………………………..……………..32 Role of the researcher ………………………………………………………………………..33 Data collection techniques and unit of analysis….………………..……….……….……….. 34 Ethical considerations ….….…………………………………………………………………35 Data Analysis and Findings …..………………..…………………………………………..36 Procedures for data organization and management …..……………………………….……..37 Web Content Analysis: Interpreting Users-Teachers’ Virtual Interactions…………….…… 39 Using ATLAS TI Software to Support Web Content Analysis ………………….…….….… 41.

(8) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !8. Non-Native English Speaking Teachers Resisting ……………………………..….….…..…… 44 Volunteering Programs as Native-Speakerism Supporters ………………………….….……… 45 Teaching Certificates Do Not Equal Teaching Degrees……………………………..……….45/53 NESTs Lack Teaching Skills………………………………………………………….…………46 ELT as Business ……………………………………………………………………………..47/56 Non-Dichotomous Positioning ………………………………………………………………48/52 Non-Native English Speaking Teachers Supporting…………………………………………….48 NNESTs Lack Language Skills ………………………..………………….…………………49/57 Language/Teaching Certificates as Helpful Tools for ELTs …………………………………….50 Students Request NESTs …………………………………………………………….………51/54 Native English Speaking Teachers Resisting ……………………………………………..….…52 Native English Speaking Teachers Supporting ………………………………………………….55 Categories and Discussion ……………………………………………………………….….…60 Questioning ELT Monetization: “But English teaching is business!!”……………….….….61 Questioning ELT as a Business ……………………………………………………………..…..62 Questioning Tests and Certificates in ELT Recruitment ……………………………….………..64 Problematizing the Struggles of the English Teachers: “Some teachers feel undermined”..68 Externalizing Teachers’ Frustrations ……………………………………………………………70 Sharing Teachers’ Aspirations ……..……………………………………………………………72 Contesting the Standardization of the Fallacy: “To be or not to be a native speaker?” ….75 Challenging the labels NEST and NNEST ……………………………………………………..76 Proposing Egalitarian Treatment in ELT Recruitment ………………………………………….78.

(9) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !9. Conclusions and Implications……………………………………………….…………………81 Limitations and Further Research………………..……………………..…………………….88 List of References …………………………………………..…………………….…………… 90 Table of Diagrams and Illustrations……………………………………………………………. Chart 1: Color codes in excerpts in ATLAS TI …………………………………………………42 Chart 2: Research questions and categories …………………………………………………… 60 Graphic 1: Coding network ……………………………………………………………………..43 Graphic 2: NNESTs Resisting …………………………………………………………………..44 Graphic 3: NNESTs Supporting …………………………………………………………………49 Graphic 4: NESTs Resisting …………………………………………………………………….53 Graphic 5: NESTs Supporting …………………………………………………………………..55 Graphic 6: Axial coding and categorization …………………………………………………….58 Graphic 7: Users reactions to statements that positioned ELT as a market business ……………63 Graphic 8: NNEST Users reacting to language tests / teaching certificates …………………….65 Appendices ……………………………………………………………………………………….. Appendix 1 Organization of discussion samples ………………………………………………..99 Appendix 2 Applying first layer of analysis……………………………………………………100 Appendix 3 Using manual color coding to foresee emerging patterns in users’ perceptions…..102 Appendix 4 Discussion threads uploaded to ATLAS TI software for coding purposes………..103 Appendix 5 Applying coding into quotes / coding in detail ……..…………………………….104 Appendix 6 NNEST Resisting Samples ……………………………………………………….105 Appendix 7 NNEST Supporting Samples ……………………………………………………..106.

(10) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !10. Introduction. This study explored local teachers’ reflections towards the native speaker fallacy in recruitment practices for EFL teachers in Bogotá through online interactions within two social digital contexts. The purpose was to characterize such reflections in order to understand whether resistance or accommodation practices to the native speaker fallacy would emerge. Alternatively, to account for the ways in which these teachers' problematizing (Pennycook, 1994) inquiry occurred towards institutions and recruiters’ reproduction and legitimization of native speakers as ideal models for English teaching . Analysis focused on posting and replying activity delivered within two Facebook groups for ELTs in Bogotá, understood as a digital social contexts (Markham, 2016) and standing in this study as embodied scenarios in the exercise of resistance and activism. Thus, this paper explored the social network as an alternative ground in the understanding of the implications of native-speakerism in the local ELT community.. This research was shaped within the field of critical applied linguistics and was concerned with a critical and social interpretation for the dichotomy between native and nonnative teachers. It explored problematizing inequalities and socially accepted givens (Pennycook, 1994) about native and non-native speakers of English and sought to contribute to a more reflexive and critical view of ideologies such as native-speakerism within local English teaching social online networks. The following is a comment on the rationale and statement of the problem..

(11) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !11. Rationale. This study was important to address for teacher education programs and pre-service and in-service EFL teachers’ awareness of issues related to teachers’ employment and professional development in the ELT field. It problematized network interactions among recruiters and teachers within two social media environments where critical discussions upon the accepted and assimilated superiority granted to native speakers emerged. It sought to understand contested perceptions on the perpetuation of disparity and discrimination practices in the ELT field through the voices of digital environment users and their participation in online group discussions. The phenomenon explored in this study has been identified and worked in contexts such as Japan, India, Thailand and South Korea (Kubota, 2002; Rivers, 2016; Watson Todd & Pojanapunya, 2009; Selvi, 2011; Kim, 2016) where the researchers’ inquiry was oriented towards the theoretical discussion of native-speakerism and discrimination in TESOL. In the Colombian context, teacher-researchers have looked into this ideology and its implications in language policies (Gonzáles, 2012; Gonzáles & Llurda, 2016), teachers’ self-perceptions (Viafara, 2016) and teachers’ resistance and struggles (Mendez, 2017). I nevertheless consider there is still a necessity to elaborate and investigate the fallacy and its practical consequences in scenarios where both novice and experienced local ELTs face disadvantages, marginalization, discrimination and stereotyping as non-native English speakers. I also considered key to explore the potential of social networks as ethnographic sites that may provide researchers with alternative views and perspectives to understand practices of identity constitution and the exercise of teachers’ resistance as subjects of recruitment practices. Therefore, findings in this.

(12) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !12. paper aimed at nurturing scholarly inquiry on teachers’ resistance, recruitment practices and native-speakerism as academically relevant issues in the local ELT community This paper sought to cast a light upon the discussion from the voices and reflections posted and replied within two Facebook local ELT employment groups. These reflections were delivered by both native and non-native English speaking teachers (henceforth, NESTs and NNESTs for analysis purposes; however the terms local and expat teachers are suggested as an alternative that conceals the dichotomous sense of the before mentioned acronyms). A framework of digital ethnography (Pink, Horst, Postill, Hjorh, Lewis and Tacchi, 2016) was developed within selected online interactions between these teachers/users. This served as basis to interpret and understand the nature of these interactions and make meaning of them as teachers’ reflections, perceptions and problematizing of ELT issues encircling the native speaker fallacy.. Statement of the problem. Local English as a foreign language teachers struggle in a highly competitive job environment, which in the past years has increased the number of qualifications desired for applicants in different scenarios such as private schools, language academies, institutes and public schools. There is a consistent emphasis and demand for native speakers of English, in which in most situations, Colombian graduate teachers find themselves in a difficult position where more qualifications, credentials and experience are required to compete with other language instructors and teachers due to their ‘non-native’ status (Viafara, 2016). Such.

(13) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !13. dichotomy and employment disadvantage is perceived by prospective EFL teachers and newly graduated in-service teachers as a concern to their teaching practice. These concerns are found, among many other scenarios, within social network discussions where both native and non-native teachers engage in conversations with ideological positioning (van Langenhove & Harré,1999) and experiential senses of the issue. In this sense, these social networks as scenarios of opinion and debate, become interesting grounds to problematize and understands the realities of teachers in the local context. This phenomenon originally led me to explore on the motivations towards the selection and predominance of the native speaker model in terms of employment opportunities in Bogotá for EFL teachers. However, from this professional issue emerged the necessity to reflect on the voices of teachers; recognizing them as main actors involved in this practice and from which the native speaker ideology can be challenged and resisted (Mendez, 2017). This subtle resistance or accommodation can take a variety of shapes and my interest as teacher-researcher was to account for them by looking at post interactions, replies and conversations within two digital social environments that I have been member for five years. Thus, I was interested in exploring the voices and perceptions from NNES teachers in two social network groups, using a framework from digital ethnography (Markham, 2016; Varis, 2014; Postill & Pink, 2012) in order to trace how they question and challenge native-speakerism givens and capture possible resistance or accommodation positioning towards the fallacy. In this respect, to provide a description of actions they execute to construct themselves as English teachers is relevant to problematize teacherinstitutions-work projection relations..

(14) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !14. The phenomenon that this research proposal problematized is found in the literature as native-speakerism (Holliday, 2005), which is described in the words of authors like Holliday (2006) and Kubota (2001, 2002) as a pervasive ideology in ELT, in which native speaker teachers are seen as providers of a more superior teaching to learners of language (Canagarajah, 1999 in Hayes, 2009), therefore, impacting different aspects of professional life such as presentation of the language (Holliday, 2006), prejudices in the teaching practice for NNESTs and ultimately, employment discrimination on the basis of nationality (Selvi, 2010). In the study of the dichotomy between NESTs and NNESTs, theoretical constructs are interconnected to exemplify the dimensions of the problem. These are: The native speaker fallacy and myth (Rampton, 1990; Phillipson, 1992; Pennycook, 1994; Canagarajah, 1999; Kramsch & Lam, 1999), Linguistic imperialism (Canagarajah & Ben Said, 2011) and the self-proclaimed linguistic authority of the native speaker (Cook, 1999; Hodgson, 2014). Additional ideological constructs that complement a critical perspective of the phenomenon include: The expansion and globalization of English (Pennycook, 1994) the concept of English as a lingua franca ELF (House, 2003 and Jenkins, 2006 in Canagarajah & Ben Said, 2011), linguistic resistance and appropriation (Canagarajah, 1999) and ultimately, teachers’ resistance (Mendez, 2017; Gee, 2001) and positioning (van Langenhove & Harré,1999). Research in the ambiguity and bias of the native-speaker-only model and native-speakerism (Reyes & Medgyes, 1994; Medgyes, 2001; Hayes, 2009; Kabel, 2009; Watson Todd & Pojanapunya, 2009; Selvi, 2010, 2011; Viafara, 2016; Mahboob & Golden, 2013) also illustrates the extent and the scope of the dichotomy between NEST and NNEST and its.

(15) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !15. consequences in employment opportunities for NNEST, which was the precursor issue for this study. The exploration of resistance practices that question native-speakerism as a prevailing language ideology, ultimate outcome for this study, must consider then the prejudice and the attitude dimension of subject’s perceptions to acknowledge ways in which prospect NNEST resist and take a critical stance for the NEST and NNEST dichotomy. The following is a description for the actors, setting and context where I have accounted for this situation. In my teaching practice and the different connections and links I have established in the past years, I discussed with colleagues in the field the different conditions and problems that English teachers face while applying for job positions at different public or private institutions in the city. Among a variety of issues, it is common to observe exclusive job advertisements and call for native teachers and excluding Colombian undergraduate teachers. While applying for teaching positions for both private lessons and full-time positions at language centers and universities, I (as well as many others) have been rejected or offered lower payment because of our Colombian nationality regarded as connected to a lower language proficiency. Through informal colleague and social media discussions, I noticed this phenomenon was growing a common matter in Bogotá and other cities in Colombia, such as Medellin, Cali or Cartagena, due to the number of advertisements with repetitive characteristics. Job advertisements were a primary source of data to account for the existence of the NEST and NNEST dichotomy in this study. As evidence, I observed and captured job advertisements addressing exclusively English native speakers. This characteristic.

(16) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !16. was mentioned as a mandatory requirement for hiring in different platforms for employment like CompuTrabajo, El empleo.com and two Facebook groups with job advertisements published on a regular basis (these are in turn, the two social network groups where data was elicited). Examples of this are provided as follows: “Native English teachers required for Bogota, Colombia. Hurry up apply Now! Legit English Institute! – Native teachers with certifications such as CELTA, TESOL, and TEFL are welcome. – Requirements: - Must be a native English Speaker…” Fragment of a job advertisement. Facebook group, March 2nd 2017. “E3 English is searching for PART TIME, native English teachers. We offer a “contrato de servicio” which means you will be paid hourly. There are future opportunities for promotion and full time positions…”. Fragment of a job advertisement. Facebook group, January 23rd 2017. “Native English teachers needed – Professionals or certified en Bogotá, D.C – We are looking for Native English teachers experienced in teaching to executives. Certified (CELTA, TESOL, TEFL, TKT)…” Fragment of a job advertisement published in CompuTrabajo on March 3rd 2017. Numerous additional examples were daily published in these websites and social media groups. Recruiters varied from language centers, English institutes, private schools, private universities and personalized business English lessons. In these job advertisements, NNEST applicants’ resumes were rejected because they did not comply with the requirement of being born in an English speaking country. In other occasions, local teachers were offered less payment per hour or contract due to the same reason. This practice has been documented by Gonzáles and Llurda (2016) through the essay Bilingualism and globalization in Latin America: fertile ground for native-speakerism where the authors explored employment inequalities for NNESTs in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and Chile and concluded that market demand is a decisive factor in students and institutions choosing.

(17) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !17. NESTs over NNESTs, and moreover, governments and official entities within the countries legitimate the native speaker model through education policies. In the case of Colombia, Ramirez (2015 in Gonzáles & Llurda, 2016) showed that private English centers and institutes tend to hire more NESTs because they are regarded as models in language proficiency and accent, disregarding ELT undergraduate degrees or accepting teaching certificates such as TKT (Teaching knowledge test) or CELTA (Certificate in English language teaching to adults) as alternatives to formal ELT education. In short, these practices are accounted as forms to legitimate native-speakerism in recruitment for ELTs. Discussions around employment discrimination and prejudices occurred in the social media, where both NESTs and NNESTs users started collective group discussion threads in Facebook groups dedicated to publish and discuss job advertisements for English teachers. These discussions evidenced hostile tendencies from both parts, escalating into aggressiveness and racial slurs. On April 11th 2017, I was able to capture some voices from both NESTs and NNESTs part and active member of these groups. These are some short excerpts from their post responses. I omitted the names for ethical purposes: NEST female teacher: “I hope you guys have perfect Spanish that you feel so confident being mean about Colombian teachers and their English. This kind of entitled attitude is why some people feel understandable resentment. They bring up issues with their working conditions and people mock their language skills…” NEST male teacher: “I’m not arguing for the superiority of either. The majority of teachers in Scandinavia are non-native and they achieve excellent results…- My post is simply highlighting why in the market (when people have choices about who teaches them), employers sometimes prefer not to choose Colombian teachers” A recruiter from a language center located in Bogotá also participated in the discussion and wrote the following:.

(18) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !18. NNEST recruiter: “Our clients demand native speakers. We’ve also had instances where the client speaks better than the teacher and that is totally unacceptable….Teachers who have a lower level than ANY student, in any field, is unacceptable. It defeats the purpose of a ‘teacher’” I elicited and analyzed these excerpts and post replies to understand the extent of the native speaker dichotomy in the English teaching community. These Facebook groups are conformed by expat teachers, local Colombian pre-service teachers and local in-service teachers and their opinions and views are valuable to approach and problematize the situation under the light of critical applied linguistics. The following are the research question that arose from this analysis exercise: Research questions • How do local teachers problematize native-speakerism discourses around ELT recruitment practices in Bogotá within two social network groups? • What can this problematization tell us about local teachers’ resistance or accommodation towards the NEST and NNEST dichotomy within ELT employment in Bogotá? Research objectives. • To inquire upon local teachers’ problematizing views on the NEST and NNEST dichotomy for ELT employment in Bogotá within two teachers’ social network groups.. • To characterize and account for emerging resistance or accommodation practices that this problematizating positioning may provide. The following chapter introduces the literature review and constructs that supported this inquiry and the analysis of findings..

(19) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !19. Literature Review. This section presents the constructs based upon theoretical sources and research-based studies that account for the dichotomy between NESTs and NNESTs as constitutive elements for accounting and understanding of data in this study. These constructs are: the native speaker fallacy and native-speakerism (Phillipson, 1992; Holliday, 2005, 2006) practices of teachers’ positioning and resistance in ELT (van Langenhove & Harré, 1999; Mendez, 2017), and employability within the ELT community (Selvi, 2011; Kubota,2002). These areas are part of a body of theory in the study of English language teaching and learning in the field of applied linguistics, and study attitudes and issues in relation to the granted superiority to native speakers in the English learning and teaching international community. These theoretical elements aim to illustrate a critical stance towards the realities of the NEST fallacy in ELT and explain the way they served as a conceptual framework to approach data in the findings. The account of elements around recruitment practices, resistance and native-speakerism presented here depict the lenses from which this study looked at the problem and addresses its background and its gaps worthy of research inquiry. The three axes proposed in order to support the discussion of teachers’ problematizing views towards native-speakerism in employment for English teachers were: The native speaker fallacy in ELT, Teachers’ resistance and ELT recruitment practices. These three lines of academic work and theory allowed me to make connections and make sense of the users’ posting and replying activity as an exercise of embedded positioning (Harré, 2012; Hine, 2015) and as a product of conflicts resulting from their constitution as.

(20) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !20. English teachers subjected to recruitment practices. The umbrella concept that contains and connects these three branches is resistance (Mendez, 2017; Canagarajah & Ben Said, 2011), because it embraces the critical perspective from which authors have approached the traditionally superior status granted to native speakers in TESOL (Holliday, 2005; Selvi, 2011). This study approached this practice of resistance through language as a problematizing practice, critical theory and problematizing givens (Pennycook, 2004) as the critical applied linguistics concerns that best connected the type of interactions, opinions, replies and posts explored in the teachers’ social networks. This problematizing sense is not mere opposition, as discussed later in the data analysis chapter. Pennycook elaborates in the way it questions inequality, injustice, rights and the natural acceptance of norms or canons. It entails resistance, as suggested in Mendez (2017), because it is concerned with conflicts and struggles that exist and have tangible effects in how teachers exercise their labor and access to professional and career development. The following is the exploration of these theoretical cornerstones and the connections I drew among them to support the claims in this thesis.. The Native Speaker Fallacy in ELT In the literature that problematizes the dichotomy between NESTs and NNESTs in TESOL, terms such as fallacy and ideology are used and interconnected to discuss the dimensions of the phenomenon in the worldwide English teachers’ community. Phillipson (1992) and later Pennycook (1994) and Canagarajah (1999) account it as a fallacy, which predicates that native speakers are superior and ideal language models compared to those.

(21) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !21. whose native language is not the target one. In Canagarajah and Ben Said (2011) revision on Phillipson’s (1992) linguistic imperialism, the authors indicate that such treatment to NEST disregards the nature of language learning as a creative cognitive and social process, being independent from the teacher’s nationality or accent. The self-proclaimed linguistic authority of the native speaker model seems not to account for the multiplicity of forms that language learning can adopt based on sociocultural contexts, approaching language from a onedimensional view (Rampton, 1990; Cook, 1999; Kramsch & Lam,1999) and thus, leading to stereotyping, injustice and control towards English teachers, both native and non-native speakers. There are followers and detractors of the native speaker model and ideology and the professed authority of NESTs over NNESTs. Authors such as Prator (1968) Quirk (1990) and Waters (2007) supported the superiority of the native speaker model. They claim that forms or varieties of the language spoken by speakers of other languages or multilingual speakers are merely approximations seeking to imitate the native speaker forms. This view has been studied by Jenkins (2006) and Cook (1999), in which the authors explored the accepted assumption that foreign language learning should allow learners to communicatively interact with native speakers. Here I find a connection between the view of ideology presented in Canagarajah and Ben Said and the traditional and socially reproduced ideals of EFL teaching and learning. In the same sense, the word fallacy as contrast to model denotes a direct rejection on behalf of the authors to the claims made in favor of superiority or hierarchy classifications in TESOL..

(22) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !22. Along with the previous theoretical construction, the debate and controversy towards the fallacy has been enlightened by ideological constructs surrounding the expansion and globalization of English. Pennycook’s (1994) work on English as an international language, the concept of English as a lingua franca ELF (House, 2003 and Jenkins, 2006 in Canagarajah & Ben Said, 2011) and linguistic resistance and appropriation (Canagarajah, 1999) reveal how users of the language take ownership of the linguistic competence and values from it and embrace it for their needs and interests. This is recognized by Canagarajah and Ben Said (2011) as linguistic resistance. English as an international language and linguistic resistance are theories that resist the native speaker fallacy as they highlight how the local variations and appropriations of English worldwide are product of valid forms of language ownership. The dichotomy between NESTs and NNESTs, as Pennycook (2004) suggests, loses its ground when local variations of non-native speakers are not recognized as negative, but as an alternative and non-standard forms of English. The literature concerning the native speaker fallacy has studied the theoretical dimensions of it as a tendency in TESOL. This tendency is documented in Holliday (2005) as native-speakerism or the pervasive ideology that positions native speakers as role models for speaking and English teaching methodology. Holliday’s term summarizes the sense in which this tendency takes place at the level of teachers’ employment. In fact, the conditions in which non-native teachers are vulnerable to the pervasive effects of this tendency encompasses the problematic sense it has been given in critical applied linguistics. Due to its pervasive nature, native-speakerism has been studied from a critical perspective that deals with non-native teachers’ subject constitution (Medgyes, 1994; Cook,.

(23) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !23. 1999; Hayes, 2009) and the effects of normalizing essentializing discourses in the TESOL community. This critical turn has well provided explanations for the fallacy and fostered academic discussion towards discrimination in the field. Nevertheless, I considered that in order to understand how local teachers problematized the fallacy, I needed to look into a body of theory that discussed teachers’ positioning as subjects of these practices. Consequently, I proposed the second axis that supported this inquiry: teachers’ resistance.. Teachers’ Resistance:What is seen and what is unseen. In conversation and interactions, positioning is presented in van Langenhove and Harré (1999) as a discursive practice that occurs among various individuals with ideological stances. In order to account for teachers’ resistance as a product of users’ online positioning, I adapted the mutually determining triad presented in van Langenhove and Harré (1999: 18) considering positioning, social force and storyline as a matrix. As the authors assert, a fracture in the power relations in a conversation can trigger reactions and positions that subjects have not foreseen. This seizure has a snow ball effect in the social network because users live through the digital world (Hine, 2015; Markham, 2016) and the social forces are applicable to the digital persona. Considering teachers as users and their interactions as the storyline, I explored teachers’ resistance as an attribute embedded in their online positioning. I related positioning theory (Davies & Harré, 2007) to the social network conversations because in this study, the social forces that motivate teachers to discuss native-speakerism among other users are regarded as authentic as face-to-face interactions..

(24) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !24. Resistance, as discussed by Mendez (2017:278) does not only operate in the linguistic level. It does indeed take a variety of shapes, moving through multiple daily practices embedded within a strategic focus, along discursive practices in which subtle unequal relationships of power are legitimated or contested. Resistance is not presented as a linear concept, but as multidirectional attribute. At first, I was interested to learn about resistance practices within social networks and approach data expecting to find abundant data that confirmed my predictions. However, I learned to understand resistance not as mere opposition, but as the exercise of positioning that one does towards the struggles and stimuli from the surrounding society (Tseng, 2011, Norton, 2000, Gee, 2001, Golombek & Jordan, 2005, Mendez, 2017). The epistemological view of resistance that this paper spouses, takes its foundations from Mendez (2017) and her understanding of resistance not only as a product of struggles and emancipation desires, but also as the quest for making visible these struggles and its implications in the shaping of their teaching and professional persona. These struggles are accounted by Mendez as the struggles of the self, the struggles for the profession and the struggles for vindication, and they are lenses I use to interpret the users perceptions when they discuss, question, challenge, oppose, support, back, or in general, problematize upon the issues concerning employability and the local view towards English teachers. Subjects operating at this level are those willing to change, eager to choose and holders of an ideological stance (Zemelman, 1998 in Mendez, 2017: 38). This stance was explored in this paper through posting and replying in the social network because as a researcher I considered.

(25) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !25. the internet as a place of embodied experiences (Hine, 2015) and the democratic exercise of ideological positioning. Teachers’ struggles with the self, for the profession and for its vindication are facets that reveal resistance as a product and a circumstance. As Mendez (2018) asserts, when teachers deal with their designated role as task executors and resist this characterization through power-knowledge relationships, they struggle with the self. When they resist practices and discourses that diminish the value and status of education, they struggle for the profession. When they claim for recognition towards the teaching practice, they struggle for vindication. These struggles presented in Mendez archeological work on the Colombian teachers’ guild served as a model to trace resistance from teachers’ voices and experiences. The data analysis chapter elaborates in the way this recount of teachers and their subject constitution was key in recognizing the arguments and claims as sources of problematizing practice. Teachers’ subject construction is influenced by power-knowledge relationships that make them objects of policies and standards of an idealization of being (Mendez, 2017) and performers subjected of constant measuring and judgement (Ball, 2003). In this view, teachers (or users of the social network) problematize the given subject when the standards and essentializing discourses are questioned and challenged. Under this perspective, their identity and self-image as non-native teachers (Tseng, 2011) is transformed as they are subjected to recruitment practices embedded in the culture of competitive performativity (Ball, 2003:219). Such perspective was crucial to trace resistance in the voices of local teachers’ as users of the social network..

(26) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !26. Mendez explores resistance under the light of Foucault’s (2005) understanding of resistance; explaining the scope of resistance not only the institutions, but also resistance within their relationships with themselves, the school and the society (Mendez, 2017:21). In the same sense, this study attempted to make meaning of the perceptions accounted here through this view of teachers’ resistance and the relevance that digital environments have acquired as grounds for social activism (Varis, 2014). In this way, I proposed a discussion in which the digital persona was considered as a construction of experiences that may depict or represent voices of resistance, voices of support and the struggles of the self towards nativespeakerism and its consequences in the concept surrounding ideal teachers of English. In the literature concerning these consequences, unequal employment conditions among NESTs and NNESTs is a recurrent issue that evidences the scope of the fallacy. Studies and articles concerning native-speakerism in teachers’ employment are presented in the following section. Their role was to construct a general view on how researchers worldwide have approached the dichotomy and its effects in the way English teachers are selected and hired.. Native-speakerism in ELT Recruitment Research in the ambiguity and bias of the native speaker fallacy also illustrates the extent and the scope of the dichotomy between NESTs and NNESTs and its consequences in employment opportunities for NNESTs (Kubota, 2002; Moussu & Llurda, 2008; SoheiliMehr, 2008; Selvi, 2011; Mahboob & Golden, 2013; Jenkins, 2017) as the problematizing precursor for this study. In Selvi’s work, the author provides evidence of unprofessional.

(27) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !27. favoritism in institutions (Medgyes, 2001 in Selvi, 2011) and unfair employment discrimination (Selvi 2010). The effects of this issue are portrayed in NNEST as negative consequences in their teaching practices, self-esteem and overall class performance (Selvi, 2010). This has led into criticizing the ELT community for positioning NEST as an ideal prospect of teachers and relegate NNEST as under-qualified (Hayes, 2009) and thus, leading to exclusion in teachers’ hiring. In Kabel (2009), the author defends the contested opinions and critical positions towards the ideological model of the native speaker, stating social reality within the applied linguistics field, structures of power and inequality as empirical supports for the detriment of the dichotomy. Kabel’s criticism to traditional applied linguistics conveys resistance practices with native-speakerism without attempting stereotypes for either NEST or NNEST. Indeed, this non-dichotomous positioning was important to trace entangled forms of resistance that played a more important role in teachers’ perceptions around recruiters and position requirements. In the Colombian ELT community, teacher-researchers have looked into nativespeakerism in teachers’ self-perceptions and as political and educational agenda. Viafara (2016) focused his attention on prospective EFL teachers’ self-perceptions of non-nativeness. His work centered on how pre-service teachers from two public universities in Colombia address their non-nativeness as a disadvantage and unfavorable constraint in comparison to NEST and in terms of language ability and cultural knowledge. Gonzáles (2012) had already introduced the conflict of native-speakerism as an agenda in language policy making around bilingualism. In a later paper, Gonzáles and Llurda (2016) explored how the fallacy shaped.

(28) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !28. the English education policies in Latin American countries. Usma Wilches (2009) also addresses how monetization and instrumentalization of ELT are legitimized in Colombia through educational policies permeated with essentializing discourses. These findings contextualized my inquiry in the way that supported locally situated research in recruitment and native-speakerism. In synthesis, an overall look at research in ELT recruitment has revealed that: Recruitment preferences towards native speakers work to the detriment of teachers’ self perceptions about teaching and professional development (Jenkins, 2017; Selvi, 2010; Hayes, 2008), unequal hiring practices are reproduced and legitimated by language policies (Gonzáles, 2012) and discrimination in TESOL has led to exclusion and stereotyping towards non-native speakers (Kubota, 2002; Kabel, 2009; Llurda, 2009). Researching upon possible both passive or active resistance or accommodation to recruitment practices that ELTs reveal can contribute to expand the discussion into a constructive dialogue that addresses the ideology and not the people. This has been a critique to research in native-speakerism that I have been able to elicit through social media log entries and discussions, where both NNESTs and NESTs seem to see the surface of the issue (employment preferences towards expats, groups and associations of native teachers hiring only native teachers, media discrimination and salary differences among both groups) but remain disregarding subtle issues such as linguistic colonialism (Pennycook, 2007) or race stereotyping (Llurda, 2009) Indeed, little research has been carried at the level of social digital online networks, which is considered in the words of Postill and Pink (2012) as scenarios of activism and rich fields for internet-related ethnography studies..

(29) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !29. These three axes as theoretical pillars supported the findings presented in the data analysis section. The conceptualization of these constructs allowed me to elaborate a map to navigate through the data elicited in the form of discussion threads and deconstructed later in this document. It also gave me a framework to make meaning of resistance as a multidimensional category. The following is the research design framework that served as a support for methodological decisions concerning digital ethnography as a descriptive and interpretive type of qualitative research..

(30) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !30. Research Design. This section describes the type of study and a justification for the selection of a descriptive and interpretive approach within a qualitative paradigm of research and a framework from digital ethnography. It also accounts for a description of the network sociality group members’ profile, plus data collection methods; my role as a researcher, and the unit of analysis to be interpreted throughout the study plus a comment on ethics and trustworthiness.. Type of Study This study pursued a qualitative paradigm and guided towards the understanding and significance of social phenomena through a naturalistic, interpretative, contextualized and informed view upon the meaning people give to the world and their experiences within it using a meaning-based and inductive type of analysis (Merriam, 2009; Elliot & Timulak, 2005; Glesne, 2006; Cresswell, 2013; Croker, 2009). The nature of this study is a descriptive and interpretive internet-related ethnography, understood as a methodologically flexible approach to internetrelated data (Varis, 2014; Markham, 2016). It is descriptive because it addresses online interactions in detail through open coding (Charmaz, 2006) and interpretive because through axial coding and web content analysis (Postill & Pink, 2012) these interactions were deconstructed and rebuilt into the three categories presented in the data analysis section. I used existing theoretical models to understand the phenomenon under the light of the literature collected and followed a process that implied selecting the object of study, theorizing upon it and inductively reflect on collected data (McMillan & Schumacher, 2005; Elliot &.

(31) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !31. Timulak, 2005; Hopkins, 2008, Merriam, 2009; Cresswell, 2013). The purpose was to approach data from a holistic perspective in order to unveil local teachers as social network users’ positioning (Harré, 1999) by means of a critical view as teacher-researcher (Merriam, 2009; Hopkins, 2008) and understanding internet as an ethnographic field site, rich in resources, active and embodied (Hine, 2015; Varis, 2014) .. Setting Following a framework of analysis within digital internet-related ethnography, this study took place within two Facebook groups. One of them addresses English language teachers in Bogotá, while the other was created for teachers around Colombia. These two groups, as stated by their corresponding administrators, aim to serve as a network for ELTs in Bogotá and teachers in Colombia in order to share employment advertisements, material and discuss teaching strategies. These two social network groups were created around 2013 and are constantly active, with members posting, replying and discussing job advertisements in Bogotá and other major cities such as Medellín, Villavicencio, Manizales, Cartagena, Barranquilla among others. The former group oriented to ELTs in Bogotá has currently around 4.290 members, while the second one, oriented to teachers of all subjects, has around 19.530 members (Number of users by November 1st, 2018). It is important to mention that these Facebook groups are conformed by pre-service teachers, in-service teachers and recruiters, both NEST and NNEST. Due to the complexity of categorizing the amount of members with particular traits, this study focused on ten conversation threads from 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. These conversations were chosen and elicited using a framework for digital ethnography (Postill & Pink, 2012) as they.

(32) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !32. revealed not only extensive length, but also a sense of problematizing, reflection and debate towards recruitment practices and native-speakerism. These Facebook teachers’ groups are still active by 2018 and job advertisements are still published on a daily basis. Discussion threads consist of comments, opinions and questions posted by users of the social network groups and all the replies stemming from these comments.. Profile of Group Participants The group participants profile selection for this study followed a convenience-theoretical non-random with purposeful sampling technique (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Creswell, 1998; Holliday, 2007; Hine, 2015). They were non-native in-service ELTs who were active group members and constantly participated in discussions involving the native speaker fallacy and recruitment practices. As a matter of fact, these profiles were observed along the eight chosen discussion threads that I analyzed in this paper. Due to occurrence, repetition and strength of their arguments as subjects affected by such practices, local teachers’ positioning directed the flow of conversations. While the social network group interactions were mixed in terms of gender, age, nationality and academic preparation, this paper centered its attention towards group participants who were: 1) non-native speakers of English, 2) licensed Colombian ELTs and 3) active group members who steadily participated in group discussions around the fallacy in job advertisements. Thus, the scope of analysis was narrowed and centered attention on prolific data cases. Nevertheless, these local group users’ interactions were mediated through replies and responses to other users, which provided a contextual framework for analysis..

(33) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !33. Role of Researcher Considering digital ethnography as a methodological framework for this paper, my role as researcher implied collecting histories of activity and thread discussions as they occurred, capturing the interactions as they unfolded. Field data is, in the case of social media, abundant and potentially to emerge at any time. According to Pink et al. (2016), the everyday life of the social media ethnographer involves living part of one’s life on the internet, keeping up-to-date with and participating and collaborating in social media discussions. I gathered samples and took screenshots (Postill & Pink, 2012) of discussions from the past three years within the two social network groups, being able to trace individual participations and cases that revealed positioning (Harré, 1999) and problematizing givens (Pennycook, 2004) when group participants engaged in lengthy discussions about issues concerning ELT employment. In keeping the facebook groups active in my cellphone, I constantly browsed between regular newsfeed content and the teachers’ facebook groups where I was a member. This allowed me to catch up with any emerging discussion or criticism towards a job advertisement or post. At random moments I was able to collect samples of discussions with significant repetition of lexical choices related to nativespeakerism issues that led me to collect and archive evidences of these discussions for later analysis. As digital ethnographer, one must be aware that most internet users cross use different platforms and devices. Therefore, further opportunities of fieldwork must be explored (Postill & Pink, 2012; Hine, 2015). Also, as stated by Hine (2015), understanding the work of the social media ethnographer as mobile is important for gaining a sense of the shifting intensities of the social media landscape.

(34) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !34. as it emerges online, but also as it is interwoven with offline activities. It was important for me as digital ethnography researcher to be able to not only keep updated about new discussions or debates (e.g., through Twitter hashtags or Facebook threads), but also become active participant of the community. My participation in these discussions was part of my locus as a local teacher and also as a researcher who is both affected and interested in the fallacy.. Data Collection Techniques and Unit of Analysis Data collection in this study followed an open-ended strategy (Elliot & Timulak, 2005; Heigham & Croker, 2009) as a flexible and adapted approach to the problem and the digital social environment interactions, selecting samples of prolific data and labeling issues of discussion and the evolution of these in terms of prolific discussions revealing positioning, resistance and accommodation towards these issues of discussion (Pink et al, 2016). Implementing a qualitative data collection manner, I was open to reassessment and constructive critique of the data focus referred in the research questions (Elliot & Timulak, 2005). The screenshot (Markham, 2016) was the most used data collection technique since it allowed me to swiftly capture interactions that would be deleted or removed. These screenshots were later organized into discussion threads for data management purposes. The unit of analysis deals local teachers’ posting and replying activity upon various issues emerging in discussions around ELT, native-speakerism and employment. The criteria for selecting this unit of analysis is suggested in Pink et al. (2016) and deals with understanding posting activity in the online debate as primary source of observation for the digital.

(35) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !35. ethnographer. Data management focused then on the detailed inspection of interaction samples, understood as discussions taking place within the two social network groups.. Ethical Considerations As an important remark on ethics, as Markham and Buchanan (2015) explain, there are a number of aspects to be considered in internet-related research, such as vulnerability, harm, human subjects, privacy concepts and even the use of informed consent. As the authors state: In Internet or digitally related research contexts, the objective of informed consent may be well intended but problematic. Researchers have sought and used robust and innovative approaches to online consent, and while no form of consent is perfect, consent in Internet research can raise particular issues. For example, is consent needed, and if so, how can we gain consent from anonymous chatroom or online forum participants? (P. 8) In this regard, and considering the nature of the two social network groups studied here, analysis was focused on the understanding and meaning I gave to these discussion interactions and, in the same sense, the identity of group members will remain hidden and of exclusive use of the author in order to avoid traceability and remain these identities secret. In other words, I sought to describe and work upon my experience of digital ethnographer on the basis of my observation. By the same line, let us remember that Facebook policies towards public information indicate that all information posted within any space of the social network is subject to the users’ modification to private or public settings. Still, those spaces where the option to make private posts is no present, the content itself becomes public (Facebook Data Policies, 2018). These are the aspects concerning the research design. The following chapter contains the data analysis and findings and the answer to the research questions in this study..

(36) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !36. Data Analysis and Findings. This chapter presents and explains the process in which data was collected, organized and managed. It accounts for the steps and procedures taken before, during and after interpreting data obtained from ten discussion threads elicited from two social network groups and the process followed to interpret emerging themes and categories, plus the role of technological tools to mediate the reasoning process. It also describes the emerging categories and sub-categories that answer the research questions along with samples that support the analysis. The research questions and objectives from this study are presented in order to portray how data management and analysis address them. Research Questions:. • How do local teachers problematize native-speakerism discourses around ELT recruitment practices in Bogotá within two social network groups?. • What can this problematization tell us about local teachers’ resistance or accommodation towards the NEST and NNEST dichotomy within ELT employment in Bogotá? Research Objectives. • To inquire upon local teachers’ problematizing views on the NEST and NNEST dichotomy for ELT employment in Bogotá within two teachers’ social network groups.. • To characterize and account for emerging resistance or accommodation practices that this problematizing positioning may provide..

(37) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !37. Procedures for data organization and management This study followed a qualitative-oriented type of analysis framed in ethnography to digital environments (Varis, 2014; Markham, 2016; Pink et al. 2016). Ethnography was chosen as it provides a framework to approach naturally occurring data and the exploration of shared patterns in a community. Therefore, an approach to data analysis for internet-related data proposed by Pink and Postill (2012) was implemented throughout data collection, management and analysis. This approach, as suggested by Markham (2016), seeks to avoid datafication and conventional process of data collection based on face-to-face techniques and instruments for data collection. Instead, as a digital ethnographer, I followed three stages to approach samples of virtual interaction from users, rich in content related to the research questions. These three stages are: data collection, content analysis and comparative analysis. These three stages were readapted and combined with web content analysis, which is a combination of conventional and direct content analysis (Kim & Kuljis, 2010; Humble, 2009). This framework for analysis was chosen over other commonly used approaches such as discourse analysis because the amount of data gathered was not enough to support the status of users’ discursive practices. I will proceed to explain in detail the three stages of this analysis approach as follows. First, as active member from the two Facebook groups where data was collected, I was in constant exposure to posts and discussions posted within the groups, which allowed me to elicit in situ samples of discussions threads in which users (I will use the term users hereafter, as a more appropriate word to refer to digital participants) problematized and discussed job advertisements or recruitment practices oriented to patronize NESTs. In words of Hine (2015), internet scenarios are embodied and embedded, which means users develop a sense of.

(38) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !38. authenticity and reality out of virtual interactions. Thus, I approached the two social network groups as fieldworks and its users as research informants. Being immersed in these scenarios, I took screenshots of job advertisements and discussion threads from October 2014 until February 2018 in which users engaged in conversations and controversies concerning said job advertisements and practices of employment favoring English native speakers over local teachers. I was able to capture around 10 discussion threads as follow: one from October in 2014, three from January, February and November in 2015, five from April, March and November in 2017 and two from February in 2018. I did not collect samples of discussions threads in 2016, for there were no significant samples to elicit. However, I elicited samples of job advertisements evidencing preferential treatment for NESTs. I organized and displayed these screenshots as threads of discussion (See Appendix 1). As a member of these groups, I also participated in most of these discussion threads, commenting, replying and giving my opinion towards topics of discussion. This posting and replying activity was genuine and part of my locus of enunciation as a local teacher affected and interested in those topics from a scholar inquiry. This was necessary, as explained by Markham (2016), because in digital ethnography contexts and fields are two intertwined concepts. Thus, a framework to analyze internet-related interactions needs to look at human interactions within internet as socio-cultural formations that, despite lacking physical architectures, provide sense of presence and positioning. In other words, Internet is portrayed not only as a tool, medium or network of connectivity, but also as a place of the world and a way of being for those belonging to it. Once I organized all collected samples into discussion threads, I started identifying topics of discussion in order to determine those issues that triggered users’ reactions related to.

(39) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !39. recruitment processes for English teachers. According to Pink et al. (2016), approaching the internet as an ethnographic site implies that most ethnographic procedures for data collection are applicable to digital spaces. Hence, my role as active observer was crucial in order to capture interactions as they unfolded, not only to capture data samples, but also to understand the meanings given by the users to their virtual interactions and identify patterns in real time. After separating all discussion threads, I started identifying central arguments that users problematized in each thread. In this way, I started to make sense of how teachers engaged in these discussions followed or detracted these central arguments and the way they position towards other users. Thus, the second stage of analysis started: Web content analysis.. Web Content Analysis: Interpreting Users-Teachers’ Virtual Interactions Once I separated all ten discussion threads, I started typifying aspects from the discussions I observed by using the framework for analysis proposed by Postill and Pink (2012) consisting on identifying: 1) demographic information, 2) background/participation history information, 3) social controls within the social network groups, 3) social motivations and 4) language used. Regarding demographic information, I was interested in the way users selfidentified themselves as native or non-native speakers, as university degree teachers or teachingcertification teachers. I also identified users with recurrent participation in discussions as well as most recurrent topics of discussion. In this way, I was able to apply a first layer of analysis to my data (See Appendix 2), which is accounted in the literature as blog content analysis (Herring, 2009:9), consisting on applying conventional content analysis to internet-related data..

(40) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !40. This first layer of analysis allowed me to narrow down users’ problematizing opinions about topics of discussion with the purpose of determining how these users position themselves towards those topics of discussion. Herring (2009) suggests that blog content analysis allows a researcher to trace and map key aspects in internet-related data, which precedes a more complex level of analysis: web content analysis (Herring, 2009; Kim & Kuljis, 2010). Web content analysis is discussed in Kim and Kuljis (2010) as a widely used strategy for both quantitative and qualitative analysis applied to web-based content, using strategies from grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006). In this study, web content analysis provided a framework to approach interactions and stances brought forth by users with the purpose of mapping preliminary items to focus on. These preliminary items were identified first through online observations of behaviors and interactions delivered by users, and then, once discussion threads were organized and schematized, I proceeded to manually apply preparatory color coding to pinpoint the attributes of users’ interactions. Color coding in web content analysis has been documented in Humble (2009) and Talip, Narayan, Edwards and Watson (2016) as a useful technique to develop coding schemes that facilitate understanding of emerging themes in webbased data. Consequently, I used color coding to identify the profile of users as Native English Speaking Teachers and Non-Native Speaking Teachers (See Appendix 3). This technique allowed me to foresee emerging patterns in the way users position themselves and most of all, their perceptions favoring or resisting the topics being discussed within the threads. According to Philipp (2014:30), qualitative content analysis has its foundations upon researcher’s interpretation practice applied to the text rather than an automatic technique..

(41) Native Speaker Fallacy, ELT Recruitment and Resistance !41. Therefore, I provisioned a preliminary interpretation of segments from data with the purpose of mapping the discussion threads and distinguish key excerpts that would constitute the corpus of analysis. This provisioning allowed me to determine the context-analytical units (Philipp, 2014:31), which led to the next step in analysis mediated by the Qualitative Analysis Software called Atlas TI.. Using ATLAS TI Software to Support Web Content Analysis After provisioning data and identify excerpts that constitute the data corpus, I made use of a qualitative data analysis software called ATLAS TI. This software is self-defined as a ‘powerful workbench for the qualitative analysis of large bodies of textual, graphical, audio and video data’ (ATLAS TI website’s description). Philipp (2014:116) suggests that qualitative data analysis software may assist the researcher with the organization of materials, marking segments of data from formerly defined pre-categories, assist with the deconstruction of large corpuses of information and ultimately, aid with axial coding (Weitzman & Miles, 1995 in Philipp, 2014:117). Consequently, I uploaded the ten discussion threads elicited as data from the two groups by means of seven documents labeled with dates and the names of the sources whence they came from (See Appendix 4). The next step followed was to transfer the first layers of analysis applied to data into ATLAS TI software and determine patters in opinions and replies. Through this process of transferring physical former data analysis into the software, I coded ninety-five (95) excerpts from the ten discussion threads. The criteria for selecting the samples was based on the type of positioning that users revealed when reacting towards posts with job advertisements, replying to.