Students' and teachers' social representations about the RP English accent and their relationship with the notion of "Native speaker" in the University educational level in Chile

Abstract

present investigation critically analyses, from Linguistic anthropology’s viewpoint, some representations from teachers’ and learners’ common sense in the discourse in relation to the English language, its teaching and learning as an L2 as well. These representations are part of certain cultural models, which once settled down, determine learners’ and teachers’ practices and choices; on the one hand, their choices about where, with whom and how to study the English language, and on the other hand, their choices about what and how to teach the language. The aim of this research study is to contribute to an “ideological clarification” (Kroskrity, 2010) in this context where teachers and students are the ultimate actors involved in the process of english teaching and learning. Consequently, some of the themes that will be discussed are (a) firstly, social representations regarding the Rp English accent, secondly, social representations about the “native speaker” in relation to the learning and teaching of English, and thirdly, the political and pedagogical implications of teachers and students involved in this process. For this purpose, 7 teachers and 16 students from the undergraduate program “Licenciatura en educación con mención en Inglés y pedagogía en inglés” at UMCE (Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación) were interviewed by means of two different questionnaires according to whether the participant was a teacher or a student. The results showed that most of the times social representations and ideologies found had little to do with the language itself or linguistic components but are closely related to political, economical, social and historical reasons that construct the background of the English language and the use of “native speakers” in the teaching and learning of English.