We often like to think of ELT as an open-minded, nice and tolerant profession. But there us unfortunately a much darker side to it. Native speakerism, which positions those perceived as ‘native speakers’ as superior, is very deeply rooted. And so is racism in ELT, unfortunately; whereby those who are not white or Western-looking will […] The post Racism in English Language Teaching is widespread appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more

A lot of you are probably familiar with the acronym EFL, or English as a Foreign Language. Some of you probably have heard as well about the acronym ESL, English as a Second Language, but more recently on this blog I’ve been talking a lot about the acronym ELF , English as a Lingua Franca. And […] The post Teaching EFL vs Teaching ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more

I had been working as the Director of Studies (DoS) at a language school in Siberia for over a year when the time came to start the next recruitment drive for international teachers. My first year as DoS had been a steep, stressful learning curve, particularly with respect to various unforeseen challenges in human resource […] The post Why employing non-native speaker teachers makes perfect sense by James Scholl appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more

Often, ‘non-native speakers’ ask me where they can teach English. Is it even possible to teach English abroad as a ‘non-native speaker’? If you’ve been asking these questions yourself, then watch the video below. Now I’m sure you already know that there are quite a lot of places in the world and quite a lot […] The post Where can I teach English as a non-native speaker? appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more

The ‘th’ sound is a very difficult sound to pronounce. But does it actually matter for intelligibility. Does it make any difference for clear pronunciation? Watch the video for more information. https://youtu.be/9H2VNu_fyD0 The ‘th’ sound, the interdental fricative is a really difficult one, isn’t it? As a student of English I remember struggling with it […] The post Teaching pronunciation for English as a Lingua Franca: The th sound appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more

Recently, I’ve talked to Lee Mackenzie about discrimination in ELT job ads. Lee has researched different forms of discriminatory hiring practices in ELT and shares some insights into ageism, racism and native speakerism in ELT job ads in Colombia and other parts of the world. Watch the video from our LIVE chat and read the […] The post Discrimination in English language teaching job ads: Interview with Lee Mackenzie appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more

Do you still talk about yourself as a ‘non-native speaker’? In this video I give 3 reasons why by using the term ‘non-native speaker’ in the recruitment process, you’re basically shooting yourself in the foot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eJ-3gFRXEY Reason 1: Prefix non is negative First really important reason is that the prefix non itself has a very […] The post Why you should stop calling yourself a non-native speaker appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more

We all know that English is primarily used by ‘non-native speakers’ as a global lingua franca. Yet, for the most part, we still only use standard ‘native speaker’ voices to model pronunciation. We frown upon having a foreign accent. Thus, inadvertently, perpetuating native speakerism That’s why I’m really excited about this lesson plan prepared by […] The post How to use non-native speakers as pronunciation models appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more

The influence that assessment has in the way we teach is undeniable, though often overlooked. A lot of decisions related to our teaching, such as resources, materials, techniques, sequencing of activities, lesson objectives and other pedagogical elements are consciously (or unconsciously) impacted by the assessment tools that we rely on – or are forced to […] The post How can language assessment be designed so that it better represents real-life language use? By Vinicius Nobre appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more

You have probably heard quite a lot recently about teaching pronunciation for English as a Lingua Franca use. I’ve written quite a lot about it too. So perhaps you’ve been wondering why: Why would I change how I teach pronunciation? Why would I start teaching pronunciation for English as a Lingua Franca use? In this […] The post Five reasons for teaching pronunciation for English as a Lingua Franca use appeared first on TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy ..read more