Hi Ally,
The work division designed for native and non-native teachers in Japan sounds really viable and practical. Thank you for your sharing. Yes we should do this together one day!

Thank you for sharing your opinion, Ingrid!
It might be true that some L2 students tend to feel more comfortable and scaffolded when listening to grammatical instructions in their home languages. This possibly because the inconsistence between L1 and L2, which could be ideally explained through contrastive analysis. Thus, teachers can flexibly code-switch between L1 and L2 to make sure their students are not left behind.

Having said that, it goes without saying that foreign teachers provide more authentic and native-like input, which is beneficial for students to improve their communicative competence.

Hi Ingrid,
This is the first time I have ever heard of “star teachers”, it sounds absolutely intriguing! In Vietnam, qualified and dedicated teachers would be invited to become either a host of a guest of educational programs, which exerts a positive influence on English teacher community in my country.

Thank you for showing me this interesting information!

2nd semester 🙂

Thanks for this interesting insight Meghan.
I truly believe that non-native teachers are better qualified to teach some areas of language than native speakers – like grammar. I am a shockingly, bad grammar teacher, which is a running joke in all my classes. I don’t even pretend to know how to teach grammar. I do my best designing lessons and teaching grammar in context. My best teaching experience was in Kyoto, Japan. In my school, Japanese teachers taught English grammar and vocabulary while native English speaking teachers taught conversation, pronunciation, cultural topics etc. This was a really effective and practical solution and we all worked well as a team. Maybe we can do that together one day.

Thanks Ingrid
These look really exciting. I look forward to reading them once assignments are done.

Hi Emme
I agree it is shocking that gender, race and language are significant factors in perceived authority of academic work as well as many other types of work. I dream of a utopian world where people have the equal opportunity for recognition and merit of their work, not based on their identity, gender, heritage, age, colour or language. One day…..

Hi Ingrid
Great news your’e teaching this class. It’s on my must do list for next year. Any idea yet which semester it will be offered?

Hi Ingrid

Yes indeed. Somehow in fairy tales, myths and religions many cultures celebrate wise, old men but women tragically become the old hag or wicked witch of the west. However, there were the three fairy godmothers….

Hi Jolie

I really agree with and am also mortified of the authority people automatically give celebrities, professional sports players and social media influencers, regardless of their knowledge, experience or education. This tends to compound the problem, as actual voices of authority and wisdom, with relevant expertise, get drowned out by the glitz and flash of celebrity. So many people in our world cannot distinguish between credible sources of information and headline grabbing, attention seeking drivel. Unfortunately this privilege also allows these people to gain positions of power they have no qualifications for where they can do severe damage on a global level. It’s a strange world we live in!

Thank you, Jolie! The influence of celebrities over politics and social life more broadly is profoundly disturbing …

Thanks, Natalia! Credibility is not something that is inherent in the speaker (or writer, or teacher) but that is bestowed by others. When a teacher with an Indonesian name is not taken seriously, an invalid indicator is used to assess their credibility rather than a valid one (such as a teaching qualification, professional expertise, etc.)

Thanks emme effe! You might be interested to read my annual International Women’s Day posts, which mostly deal with the erasure of academic women.
Why are there so few notable women?
Why do female academic publish less than their male peers?
Remembering cancelled women
Female academics and shamans face the same glass ceiling
Strange academic women

Thanks, Tammy! As Jay just said below, we all suffer from an infodemic!

Thanks, Jay! Pakistan is not alone in this; in Australia and the US, people were apparently hospitalized for over-dosing on Ivermectin, a medication to deworm horses but believed to be a miracle cure of COVID by some …