What do TESOL teachers actually teach? What do they know about language,
about English and the ways it is used in the world? How do they view
themselves and their work, and how are they viewed by others? How is
TESOL perceived as a profession and as a discipline? How can teachers
make the most of the available resources? Can global English really
deliver what it seems to promise? These are some of the questions
explored in Rethinking TESOL in Diverse Global Settings, a book which
examines what we mean when we talk about English language teaching and
what we understand the job of an English language teacher to be.
Covering diverse teaching environments, from China to Latin America and
the Middle East, and from elementary school to university, the authors
take a critical look at TESOL by focusing on the actual substance of the
subject, language, and attitudes towards it. Through concrete examples
from language classrooms, in the form of vignettes and accounts from
native speaker and non-native speaker teachers alike, they explore the
experiences of teachers worldwide in relation to issues of identity and
professionalism, nativeness and non-nativeness, and the pressures of
dealing with the expectations with which English has become invested.
While recognising the often precarious academic and institutional status
of TESOL teachers, the book pulls no punches in challenging those
teachers as a whole to become more ambitious in their aims, positioning
themselves not as mere skills providers, but language experts,
specialists in their subject, members of a legitimate academic
discipline. Only then, the authors argue, will TESOL teachers and their
work be taken seriously and their expertise recognised.
