native speakerism in english language teaching recruitment discourse: evidence from job advertisements worldwide

This study aims to explore what the job advertisements for english language teachers indicate about discrimination and inequality in elt. unlike the previous studies which take a limited scope by considering the advertisements from a limited number of countries or regions, this study takes a broad scope by collecting 158 job openings from 32 countries. the advertisements were content analyzed for ideal teachers’ qualities and requirements, description of perks and fringe benefits, specification of workplace and job locations along with the analysis of pictures and videos in the recruitment websites. next, thematic analysis was employed to determine the major trends in the employment discourse. the analysis of results highlighted some facts about elt: elt is under the hegemony of native speakerism ideology; non-native english teachers experience multifaceted discrimination on the basis of race, age, location of residence and academic degree; elt is a competitive marketplace to win native speakers using different strategies; the cost-effective strategies drives employers to recruit young fresh graduate native speakers; elt exerts discrimination against native speaker teachers by moving from native speakers to anglo- english speakers; and elt is working towards institutionalization and entrenchment of discrimination. the results also pointed to some fallacies as represented in recruitment discourse: teaching english is viewed as an adventure full of travel and pleasure; nativeness can compensate for the lack of experience or qualifications; elt is governed by supply-demand and preference principles; and native speakers can make ideal teachers and promise fun and effortless language learning. the facts and fallacies were then problematized and discussed and ways were suggested to fight against native speaker legacy. finally, the implications of the study for various stakeholders including governments, recruiters, and the native and non-native speaker teachers were presented.