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Researching Discourses of Culture and Native-speakerism

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(En)Countering Native-speakerism

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Abstract

This chapter explores the research methodology employed in a study of how a small group of 32 teachers and students of English in a university department in Mexico construct culture, and how such constructions feed the ideology of native-speakerism. The study was carried out by Armenta (2014), who will be referred to as the researcher throughout. The investigation included 24 student participants, 16 women and eight men. The teachers’ group comprised one American, one Canadian and two British nationals, along with four Mexican teachers. The construction of culture was found to be a complex process in which teachers and students struggled in negotiating diverse sources of knowledge, from the personal (parents and upbringing) to professional, and/or public discourses, including those current in ELT. Rather than reporting the whole study, this chapter will take examples from the data collection and analysis.

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© 2015 Ireri Armenta and Adrian Holliday

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Armenta, I., Holliday, A. (2015). Researching Discourses of Culture and Native-speakerism. In: Swan, A., Aboshiha, P., Holliday, A. (eds) (En)Countering Native-speakerism. Palgrave Advances in Language and Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137463500_3

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