Multilingual Legitimacy in Japanese Eikaiwa: A Conceptual Framework for Teacher Authority
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64612/ijiv.v1i5.42Keywords:
Language education, Multilingual pedagogy, EikaiwaAbstract
Native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) have often been preferred over non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in English language instruction. In Japan's Eikaiwa business, which is made up of private, commercial English conversation schools, this bias is kept alive by marketing and hiring methods that correlate nativeness to teaching excellence. This conceptual paper introduces the Multilingual Legitimacy Framework (MLF) to challenge existing norms in Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL) classroom. The MLF says that legitimacy comes from three things: language skills, teaching experience, and the ability to work with people from other cultures. Identity affirmation, educational impact, and institutional recognition trigger these. It shifts the foundation of authority from native speakers to multilingual and intercultural individuals, establishing a more equitable framework for NNESTs. The framework improves Norton's dynamic view of how to identify language teachers and adds TEIL ideas to Eikaiwa's consumer-oriented setting, which makes Moussu and Llurda's NNEST legitimacy model more complete. In reality, it aids in the development of educators and the transformation of institutions, while also laying the groundwork for subsequent research on multilingual identity and worldwide English Language Teaching policy.
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