The struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity

Malaysian universities often resort to international faculties to teach, so-called, international languages, especially when a BA program is offered by the institution. International foreign language lecturers (IFLL) are “convenient”: (i) their presence enables the country to overcome the shortage o...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Machart, Regis Christian, Hua, Zhu
Other Authors: Komisarof, Adam
Format: Book Section
Language:English
Published: Routledge 2015
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/52846/1/The%20struggles%20of%20an%20international%20foreign%20language%20lecturer%20with%20representations%20of%20cultural%20identity.pdf
_version_ 1825930767069347840
author Machart, Regis Christian
Hua, Zhu
author2 Komisarof, Adam
author_facet Komisarof, Adam
Machart, Regis Christian
Hua, Zhu
author_sort Machart, Regis Christian
collection UPM
description Malaysian universities often resort to international faculties to teach, so-called, international languages, especially when a BA program is offered by the institution. International foreign language lecturers (IFLL) are “convenient”: (i) their presence enables the country to overcome the shortage of local qualified lecturers (Bodycott and Walker, 2000, 80-1); (ii) when they are native speakers, they guarantee a high level of proficiency in the taught language-for a representation of the native speaker see Rampton (1990/2003) and for a critique of “native-speakerism” ideology Holliday (2006); (iii) their fluency in (at least) one international language is expected to give them an advantage in publishing in international journals; (iv) they contribute to the dissemination of an image of a global (reputable) university which can attract international staff; and (v) more recently, with the increasing importance given to international rankings for universities such as that of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Marginson and van der Wende, 2007), where the number of international staff has become an evaluation criterion, their presence reputedly improves the place in which they work. While beneficial for the institution from an administrative point of view, IFLL also become the incarnation of a language and its associated culture for the language learners, especially when the geographical distance reinforces the xénité [strangeness] (Dabène, 1994) of the studied language. IFLL thus fall under the widespread association of language and culture, even if the latter concept is rarely questioned in the Malaysian context (Chin, 2013). As native speakers, they become the living example of the language they teach, and at the same time, a representative of an “imagined culture” (Dervin, 2012).
first_indexed 2024-03-06T09:16:34Z
format Book Section
id upm.eprints-52846
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T09:16:34Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Routledge
record_format dspace
spelling upm.eprints-528462021-09-11T07:36:56Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/52846/ The struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity Machart, Regis Christian Hua, Zhu Malaysian universities often resort to international faculties to teach, so-called, international languages, especially when a BA program is offered by the institution. International foreign language lecturers (IFLL) are “convenient”: (i) their presence enables the country to overcome the shortage of local qualified lecturers (Bodycott and Walker, 2000, 80-1); (ii) when they are native speakers, they guarantee a high level of proficiency in the taught language-for a representation of the native speaker see Rampton (1990/2003) and for a critique of “native-speakerism” ideology Holliday (2006); (iii) their fluency in (at least) one international language is expected to give them an advantage in publishing in international journals; (iv) they contribute to the dissemination of an image of a global (reputable) university which can attract international staff; and (v) more recently, with the increasing importance given to international rankings for universities such as that of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Marginson and van der Wende, 2007), where the number of international staff has become an evaluation criterion, their presence reputedly improves the place in which they work. While beneficial for the institution from an administrative point of view, IFLL also become the incarnation of a language and its associated culture for the language learners, especially when the geographical distance reinforces the xénité [strangeness] (Dabène, 1994) of the studied language. IFLL thus fall under the widespread association of language and culture, even if the latter concept is rarely questioned in the Malaysian context (Chin, 2013). As native speakers, they become the living example of the language they teach, and at the same time, a representative of an “imagined culture” (Dervin, 2012). Routledge Komisarof, Adam Hua, Zhu 2015 Book Section PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/52846/1/The%20struggles%20of%20an%20international%20foreign%20language%20lecturer%20with%20representations%20of%20cultural%20identity.pdf Machart, Regis Christian and Hua, Zhu (2015) The struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity. In: Crossing Boundaries and Weaving Intercultural Work, Life, and Scholarship in Globalizing Universities. Routledge, London, pp. 91-104. ISBN 9781138825352; EISBN: 9781315740041 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315740041-17/struggles-international-foreign-language-lecturer-representations-cultural-identity-regis-machart
spellingShingle Machart, Regis Christian
Hua, Zhu
The struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity
title The struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity
title_full The struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity
title_fullStr The struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity
title_full_unstemmed The struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity
title_short The struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity
title_sort struggles of an international foreign language lecturer with representations of cultural identity
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/52846/1/The%20struggles%20of%20an%20international%20foreign%20language%20lecturer%20with%20representations%20of%20cultural%20identity.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT machartregischristian thestrugglesofaninternationalforeignlanguagelecturerwithrepresentationsofculturalidentity
AT huazhu thestrugglesofaninternationalforeignlanguagelecturerwithrepresentationsofculturalidentity
AT machartregischristian strugglesofaninternationalforeignlanguagelecturerwithrepresentationsofculturalidentity
AT huazhu strugglesofaninternationalforeignlanguagelecturerwithrepresentationsofculturalidentity