English as an international language international student and identity formation

This article was downloaded by: [Monash University] On: 19 August 2009 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 907465088] Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Language and Intercultural Communication Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t794297827 English as an international language: international student and identity formation Phan Le Ha a a Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia Online Publication Date: 01 August 2009 To cite this Article Phan Le Ha(2009)'English as an international language: international student and identity formation',Language and Intercultural Communication,9:3,201 — 214 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/14708470902748855 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14708470902748855 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material Language and Intercultural Communication Vol 9, No 3, August 2009, 201Á214 English as an international language: international student and identity formation Phan Le Ha* Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia Drawing on the literature on Asian international students, current debates surrounding English as an international language (EIL), and the conceptual tools of appropriation, this article reports the findings of a qualitative research study with eight Asian international students studying at a university in Thailand to explore their taking ownership of English and how they see themselves in relation to the language The findings demonstrate that these students’ appropriation of EIL for their own advantage reflects a healthy and sensible sense of sharing the ownership of English The findings also highlight the relationships between these students’ sense of self and their positioning with respect to the English language Many stereotypes about international students constructed around the English language and their being Asian have been challenged by the sophisticated and dynamic manner of the participants’ appropriation of English The article argues that together with encouraging and valuing users’ appropriation of English, it is important to acknowledge and promote ways that individuals take ownership of English Their voices must be heard, not assumed Users of EIL need to be seen as individuals and in relation to who they are, who they want to be and who they could become and in multiple domains in which their identities are produced and reproduced Noi dung cua bai viet dua tren so lieu thu thap duoc tu mot de tai nghien cuu khoa hoc thuc hien voi tam sinh vien quoc te nguoi chau A theo hoc chuong trinh thac si ve giang day tieng Anh tai mot truong dai hoc o Thai Lan Bai viet duoc khai trien tren nen co so ly luan lien quan den ba mang ly thuyet Thu nhat, la mang ly thuyet viet ve du hoc sinh chau A tai cac quoc gia noi tieng Anh Thu hai, la cac van de va tranh cai xoay quanh tieng Anh nhu mot ngon ngu quoc te Thu ba, la cac hinh thuc tiep nhan va chon loc tieng Anh cua cac cong dong va quoc gia tren the gioi cho muc dich phat trien rieng cua minh De tai nghien cuu noi tren nham muc dich tim hieu moi lien he giua viec su dung tieng Anh nhu mot ngon ngu quoc te, goc gac chau A va moi truong hoc tai Thai Lan co anh huong nhu the nao den su hinh va phat trien cac gia tri co lien quan den cai toi, ban sac ca nhan, ban sac van hoa va ban sac dan toc cua tam du hoc sinh quoc te tham gia vao de tai Ket qua cua de tai bac bo mot so nhan dinh mang tinh tieu cuc va co phan ky thi ve sinh vien quoc te nguoi chau A, vi du nhu kha nang tieng Anh yeu kem va cach tiep can tri thuc thieu tinh sang tao va thieu dau oc phan bien Nhung nhan dinh phan lon deu cho rang nguyen nhan cua nhung yeu kem xuat phat tu ly ngon ngu, su khac biet van hoa va su thua kem ve van hoa tri thuc so sanh voi phuong Tay Viec tam sinh vien quoc te nguoi chau A du hoc tai Thai Lan chu dong va sang tao lam chu tieng Anh va tiep nhan co chon loc ngon ngu duoi nhieu goc da dang cho thay su lam chu tieng Anh nhu mot ngon ngu quoc te co moi lien he mat thiet voi su hinh cac gia tri co lien *Email: ha.phan@education.monash.edu.au ISSN 1470-8477 print/ISSN 1747-759X online # 2009 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14708470902748855 http://www.informaworld.com 202 P.L Ha quan den ban sac va vi tri xa hoi cua moi ca nhan moi tuong quan voi nhung hoan canh khac nhau, voi van hoa dan toc, dat nuoc cua minh va su giao luu quoc te Dieu goi mo mot huong di moi cho nhung nghien cuu co lien quan den tieng Anh nhu mot ngon ngu quoc te, ban sac, va du hoc sinh tai cac quoc gia khac tren the gioi Bat dau bang nhung dinh kien duong nhu khong phai la mot cach bat dau co hieu qua de tim hieu su hinh cac gia tri ban sac cua cac nhom du hoc sinh boi le qua trinh hinh cac gia tri ban sac thuong rat phuc tap, da chieu, chiu tac dong cua hoan canh, luon the bien dong nhung lai gan lien voi nhung gia tri van hoa ‘goc’ ma nhung dinh kien mang tinh khien cuong thuong khong nam bat duoc Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 Keywords: international students; Asia/Asian; English as an international language (EIL); appropriation; identity formation; ownership of English; Thailand Introduction Stories and experiences of individuals appropriating English to their advantage have not yet been highlighted in the literature on international students and English as an international language (EIL) In the same vein, little about international students in areas beyond the Western world has been discussed in the published research literature The assumption that ‘the West is the world’ and English belongs to native English-speaking countries appears to have marginalised even the need and importance of doing research into the so-called Other Á the Other that the Self has already known and constructed (Pennycook, 1998; Said, 1978) This article responds to this concern and the absence of empirical work on international students studying in Thailand, a non-Western context In 2006, I took a trip to Thailand that astonished me I felt I was in a truly international environment: the students and academics who attended my seminar were international in appearance, language, culture, experience and ethnicity In particular, we all seemed to share the ownership of the English language Many international students confirmed that they felt comfortable and respected as international students who had a command of English in addition to their mother tongue They clearly had taken advantage of the international role of English and presented themselves as having a certain authority with respect to this language This phenomenon demanded further research Drawing on the literature on Asian international students, current debates surrounding EIL, and the conceptual tools of appropriation, this article reports the findings of qualitative research with eight Asian international students who were studying at a university in Thailand The research is designed to explore their taking ownership of English and how they see themselves in relation to the language The findings demonstrate that these students’ appropriation of EIL for their own advantage reflects a healthy and sensible sense of sharing the ownership of English The findings also highlight the relationships between these students’ sense of self and their positioning with respect to English Throughout the article, I employ the terms Self, Other, Asia, Asian, the West and Western with full awareness of the different connotations and limitations attached to each of them I not treat these terms as being unified, fixed and binary in relation to each other Instead, I have adopted a critical view taking into account various dimensions of these terms (see Phan, 2008 for a detailed discussion) Language and Intercultural Communication 203 Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 English and international students International students, particularly those coming from Asian countries, have suffered from negative stereotyping associated with their Asian origins and their use of the English language The literature testifies to the perception that, despite the range of nationalities represented among international student body, it tends to be regarded as being ‘Asian’, and ‘Asians’ in turn tend to be regarded as ‘international students’ Á particularly in Australia and New Zealand Collins (2006), for example, observes that international students in New Zealand are often referred to as ‘Asian students’, especially in the media, which goes further by representing New Zealand citizens and permanent residents of Asian descent in the same discourse as non-resident Asians Being Asian is depicted more negatively than positively, despite the contribution that Asians, and Asian students, make to New Zealand’s economic growth and multicultural identity As Coates (2004) has noted, international students remain ‘the foreigner’ and ‘the stranger’ Another example that conflates international students with ‘Asians’ is the work of Ballard and Clanchy (1997) Although the title of their book is ‘Teaching international students: a brief guide for lecturers and supervisors’, these authors represented ‘the international student’ as all Asians These ‘Asian international students’ suffered from negative, even hostile, comments and attitudes from their lecturers due to their being the Asian Other and to their having poor language skills, as reported in the book Discourses about Asian international students often describe them being uncritical, passive, obedient and lacking analytical and argumentative skills Á deficits that are associated with their ‘Asian’ backgrounds (Ballard & Clanchy, 1991; BarrettLennard, 1997; Samuelowicz, 1987) In addition, problems with plagiarism and lack of participation are traced to their poor English and their Asian cultural values (Sowden, 2005) Asian international students have been accused of reducing academic standards in Australian universities and causing academics to soft-mark (Devos, 2003) Marlina (2007, p 5) cites a range of sources in the USA, the UK and Australia which confirm the general picture of Asian students: many of these stereotypes are ‘repeated often in the professional literature, conference presentations’ (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p 710), appear in ‘minutes of a Course Planning Committee, and a frequent topic of conversation between western lecturers about students from Asian countries’ (Kember, 2000, p 99), and appear to be a ‘recurring concern preoccupying academics in response to the increased number of international students from Asia’ (Kettle, 2005, p 50) Accordingly, international students are often blamed for their deficit and thus expected to adjust themselves to ‘new’ educational contexts in the host country, which bear characteristics of dominant Western academic and ideological conventions and discourses However, a study by Lee and Rice (2007) on international students in the USA contends that international students’ difficulties are caused as much by the different forms of discrimination and racism that have been practised against them In the same vein, Gu and Schweisfurth (2006) also problematise the assumption about ‘the’ Chinese international student in the UK and their problem of adjustment The key issues of concern raised in these studies, again, point to those of the language and the Asian Other identities In a study conducted into factors influencing international students’ decisions to study in Australia and Thailand, Jones (2006) excludes the role of English as one factor for comparison because English is not a native language of Thailand 204 P.L Ha Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 However, the author shows in the study that although Australia is pictured as an English-speaking country ‘perceptions of the benefits of study abroad such as ‘‘learn English with native speakers’’ decreased’ (Jones, 2006, p 26) among international students there This finding suggests that ‘learning English with native speakers’ is no longer an obvious comparative advantage to attract international students and that English is no longer solely the property of Australia in the region Jones’ study sheds some light on international students’ perspective on the shared ownership of English The present article investigates further how the use and consumption of English contributes to the sense of identity of a group of international students in Thailand The findings further consolidate the emerging literature on the ownership of English, which is dealt with in the subsequent section, which demonstrate that in the context of EIL, that English is the property of only the English-speaking West and that international students have to submit themselves to English is no longer valid and thus must not be taken for granted Taking the ownership of English as an international language (EIL) Debates surrounding the international status of English have mushroomed over the past years (for example, Brutt-Griffler, 2002; Kachru, 1986; Pennycook, 1994; Phillipson, 1992; Rubdy & Saraceni, 2006) Concerns about the ownership of English have also been raised and discussed (Canagarajah, 1999; Holliday, 2005; McKay, 2002; Phan, 2008; Widdowson, 1997) Issues of resistance, appropriation and negotiation in relation to EIL have been noted and theorised For instance, Canagarajah (1999) demonstrates that Sri Lankans have been able to use appropriate English for their own purposes, taking into account local cultural and political factors He offers an approach that resists ‘linguistic imperialism in English teaching’ Hashimoto (2000, p 39) provides an example of how a country resists Western globalisation and English dominance He argues that ‘the commitment of the Japanese government to internationalisation in education actually means ‘‘Japanisation’’ of Japanese learners of English’ Resistance, appropriation and negotiation not mean rejecting English Instead, they support the use of English for one’s own benefit and equality, but at the same time urge English users to work together to eliminate the still active discourses of colonialism These notions suggest a new and more sophisticated view of ‘appropriation’, which consists of resistance and reconstitution English users may be better served by their proactively taking ownership of its use and its teaching English users, particularly non-native speakers of English, will then ‘be the main agents in the ways English is used, is maintained, and changed, and who will shape the ideologies and beliefs associated with [EIL]’ (Seidlhofer, 2003, p 7) Warschauer (2000, p 511) shares a belief in a more widespread of EIL and accordingly ‘a shift of authority to non-native speakers [of English]’ However, Canagarajah (2005, p xvi) also points out the fact that ‘standard English’ is still the norm in most institutions and that other forms of English are not guaranteed a place Rather, they have ‘to be achieved through socially informed struggle and strategic negotiation’ (p xvi) Appropriation includes the possibility of change and opens up spaces for the Other to develop positively and equally in relation to the Self In the context of EIL, appropriation is specifically related to how the Others actively and comfortably use English as their tongue But appropriation does not stop at an ‘apolitical relativism’ status (Pennycook, 2001, p 71) Instead, it will assert itself by constantly creating Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 Language and Intercultural Communication 205 ‘third cultures or third spaces’ as suggested by Kramsch (1993), (cited in Pennycook, 2001, p 71) Indeed, the use of English plays an important part in both one’s desire to communicate with the world and one’s will to preserve one’s identity (Kubota, 1998; Pham, 2001) It also influences one’s perception of one’s identity (Kramsch, 2001; Lin, Wang, Akamatsu, & Riazi, 2001) Put differently, English contributes dynamically to identity formation and a sense of belonging that is complemented but not compromised by a sense of global citizenship It is important to explore what the process of taking ownership of English involves It is therefore critical to tell more stories of how individuals and communities have taken ownership of English to their advantage The international students participating in this study were also teachers of English, and their appropriation of EIL did not simply occur within their immediate context It took place at multiple sites and in interaction with the language, other users of it, their multiple roles and how they were seen by different stakeholders of the English language in Thailand The inter-relationships between context (of their language learning, language teaching and language use), their identity formation and change, their representation seen in their own eyes and constructed by others, and their own attitudes towards English were all interwoven in the ways these students claimed their ownership of English As we shall see later, taking ownership of English carried different meanings to different participants, as affected by these inter-relationships The study The study was conducted with a group of eight international students doing their Masters degree in English Language Teaching at an international university in Thailand Four of them came from China, and four came from Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines, respectively Their ages ranged from 25 to 32 The students had some English teaching experience either in their home country or in Thailand or both In their course, the medium of instruction was English These students commenced their English Language Teaching (ELT) degree at different times, so not all of them were on the same courses The ELT courses they took in Thailand had lecturers from various countries, such as Britain, the USA, Australia, India, Singapore, Eastern Europe, Vietnam and Thailand They also had classmates coming from English-speaking countries including North America and Australia, and classmates from European countries Data collection were by informal face-to-face conversations with the participants in Thailand after I had delivered my public lecture at their university The conversations were mainly with the students from China, and this explained why I obtained more data from these students than the ones from Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines The participants were then asked to respond to 10 guided questions in writing, and these questions were followed up by email exchanges for clarification and depth The topics included ‘Your experience as an international student in Thailand’, ‘Your experience with English in Thailand’, ‘Your experience with your own teaching in Thailand’ and ‘How you see yourself in relation to English?’ The following section presents various ways in which the participants saw themselves as appropriating English and constructing their identity in relation to the language 206 P.L Ha Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 Taking ownership of English by making English serve one’s multi-relationships with the language The data given below show that these eight Asian international students felt they were in control of the English language and saw their command of English as putting them in a ‘better’ position They saw English as everyone’s language and seemed to enjoy positive international experiences by taking ownership of English Above all, they all seemed to use English proactively to their advantage Through English, their multiple relationships with English and their multiple identities were identified, produced and reproduced As we shall see, the students’ comments support the argument, partly exemplified in the work of Canagarajah (1999) and Kramsch (2001), that English has been appropriated by international users to an extent that is meaningful to them Their comments also suggest that the use of EIL creates domains that help these students reclaim their identities as Asian in general and as Chinese or Indonesian, for example, in particular Being able to use English was seen as an important factor contributing to these students’ positive experience as international students and/or foreigners in Thailand The comments reported and summarised below show that all the participants self-identified with English, sometimes in ways that were similar, sometimes in ways that were unique Their shared ownership of English, and their positive relation to it, was an important factor in contributing towards their multiple identities Teaching Chinese through English The four students from China all reported that they taught Chinese in Thailand through English They all appreciated the role of English in helping them introduce their language and cultures to others They felt proud as they were highly regarded for their mastery in both English and Chinese by their students and by those westerners they knew in Thailand They also seemed to be proud as speakers of these two dominant languages that others wanted to learn This gave them a sense of ‘superiority’, not just in relation to English but Chinese as well, as expressed by two students English granting its users an empowering and ‘superior’ status I feel a little bit superior and proud compared to some Thai people’s speaking English, because we can manage the sentences more neatly, logically, grammatically, and more expressively instead of their keeping repeating Meanwhile, I feel happy, because I can communicate with those westerners to gain more information and make friends with them This frequent contact in English helps enhance understanding, hence facilitate the cultural transmitation (S2-China) I have been exposed to international teaching methods and learning strategies and been transformed to an English teacher and learner who is confident in achieving her dreams in her teaching career (S3-China) What these two students expressed emphasised the important role of ‘the international context’ in which they learnt, taught and used English The institution where they took their Masters’ degree seemed to offer them good opportunities to establish and exercise their multiple identities with respect to English More importantly, it was Language and Intercultural Communication 207 they who took the initiatives in making full use of the context for their language learning and professional development However, S2’s view also raises a concern that the ownership of English may be ‘politicized’ by its users She defined some Thais as being ‘inferior’ because they needed to learn English from her and some westerners whom she wanted to mix with as being relatively ‘superior’ Proficiency in English or the ownership of English, appeared to be an important criterion with which she identified herself and others The observation of such views suggests that taking the ownership of English is itself a complicated process, which at the deepest level, is laden with the question of identity formation and re-construction Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 ‘English as one part of my life’ and ‘the gateway’ to know others Before English is just one subject that I need to learn and teach But now English is one part of my life I communicate and write in English I keep the record of my life in English I also use English to make money when I go to class to teach (S3-China) I have related to English more than 15 years I have learned English from secondary school until I graduated university as my major and now I am still learning and teaching it at international school English is something that most Korean people cannot help learning for social and cultural reasons, but for me I regard English as the gateway to the contact with the different people in other world (S5-Korea) What S3 reported revealed the sentiments she had about English and her attachment to it It was not just the language she learnt, taught and used, but the language in which she ‘recorded’ her life This is a powerful example of one’s appropriation of English that carries feelings, love and affection embedded in her use of the language S5 can also be seen as having appropriated English for her own purposes, but her words clearly show that her appropriation involves greater resistance to the stereotypes made about Koreans learning English She excluded herself from the majority of Koreans who had learnt English for social and cultural reasons She was in Thailand and this context enabled her to meet and have contacts with people from all over the world While the learning of English in Korea is often discussed in the literature as a ‘fever’ that strongly portrays Koreans as being Americanised and ‘crazy about English’ (for example, Han, 2004), S5 constructed a different image of herself in relation to this must-learn language Being a communicator of cultures through ‘International English’ One good thing about studying in Thailand is that you get to know people from different parts of the world, and you can get a lot of opportunities to listen to people speaking English with different accents I personally think that it is very important since now the world deals with ‘International English’, and it is crucial for one to be able to communicate well with others from various cultural backgrounds (S10-Taiwan) English is the foreign language I try to master as a teacher I like using English in this special international environment I want to create an immersion environment for myself even I am in an English speaking country Now I feel that I have more control in using English in daily and academic communication I enjoy doing like this as long as I live in a foreign country (S4-China) 208 P.L Ha Again, these two students acknowledged and recognised the importance of the context in which they were able to learn and use English It is also interesting to see that ‘the international context/environment’ was constructed around the status of EIL Put differently, an ‘international context’ often means an ‘English-speaking context’ Perhaps, this very ‘international context’ tended to liberate these students more in terms of how they accepted different Englishes and developed their knowledge of others Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 Reasserting one’s identity through English: feeling proud to be Asian Although there is an extensive literature on the colonising influence of English on its users (for example, Pennycook, 1994, 1998; Phillipson, 1992), what the participants expressed in this study presented a different position They felt they had colonised English Their identities as ‘Asian’ were reclaimed, strengthened and deeply felt in the ways they asserted their identities in relation to English, their home country, their people and their status: It is really amazing how English as an international language can help people from different cultures and countries to communicate with one another in depth I understand more about Chinese culture and what the national identity as a Chinese means to me I cherish more about the beauty of our language and the depth of our culture and the width of our life philosophy Those things are implicit and unconscious before I go abroad Through the frequent communication with people from various cultures, I often reflect on our own cultures and think more deeply about the importance of being a Chinese as well as an intercultural communicator (S4-China) I have a strong sense of belonging to my own country I feel proud of being a Chinese I am still Chinese I use English only as a medium of communication Chinese long history, stronger economy, hard-working people, diversified dialects and cultures, various and delicious food, rich resource All of these make me feel so good to be Chinese (S2-China) I enjoy studying and teaching English in Thailand since I have got the advantages of being an Asian and yet, proficient in English; which I hope could be a role model among other successful English learners in a non-English speaking country (S7-Indonesia) In the same vein, these participants felt that the knowledge they had acquired through the means of English had helped them be more aware of their identities as Asian More data obtained from S2 and S4 revealed that these two participants tended to appreciate their Chinese culture more when they lived abroad They saw the need to learn more about their own culture and country, as they were identified not just as Asian but as Chinese in particular, in their conversations with others in English They felt proud when they could talk about China in English This gave them a sense of achievement as English language learners, a sense of success as intercultural communicators, and a sense of ownership as EIL users To S7 from Indonesia, her self-representation as a successful role model to other non-native English-speaking learners deconstructs the native speaker norm deeply embedded in English language teaching and learning (Holliday, 2005) and further supports the argument for EIL and appropriation of EIL by its users Language and Intercultural Communication 209 ‘I not own the language and the language does not own me’ English language has become an international language, and some people may disagree with me on this issue However, the truth is that having the ability to communicate in the language yields is more advantageous if not rewarding I have been speaking the language for quite some time now but one thing is clear though, I not own the language and the language does not own me What I mean is that the gift of this language has opened wider doors for me, but I am in no way cloistered by its dazzling world of origin In fact, it helped me create a world of my own (S6-Philippines) Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 This statement from S6 corresponds to Kramsch’s (1993) concept of the ‘third space’ She appeared to enjoy her authority over English and be comfortable in her own ‘third space’ constantly created and re-created by her multiple relationships with English In addition, her authority over English marked her resistance to the colonial history associated with the language English alone, though important, is not enough One thing that’s different, though, is that being an international student in Thailand, you need to learn Thai, not English If you don’t speak Thai, a certain degree of difficulty to get around is there English is the key to all the courses well in my study, but as to living in Thailand, Thai is more important (S8-Taiwan) The acknowledgement that English is important and that it is an international language does not negate the equal status of other languages What this participant from Taiwan expressed about the need to know both English and Thai to function well in her study and everyday life in Thailand recognises the importance of multilingualism and the danger and limit of knowing only English EIL can result in the appreciation of other languages and in multilingualism (Joseph & Ramani, 2006) Taking ownership by feeling included and positive as international students and foreigners in Thailand All participants reported a positive experience of being an international student and foreigner in Thailand They perceived their status as being privileged Despite a large number of foreigners coming from western countries to Thailand, these participants had not experienced discrimination in the ways they were viewed and treated in Thai society Their experience appeared to be the opposite to that of the international students reported in studies by Koehne (2004) and Lee and Rice (2007) in Englishspeaking countries Neither were they constructed as ‘the international student’ Á ‘the stranger’ as discussed in Coates (2004) Indeed, these students’ Asian backgrounds may make it easier for them to adjust in Thailand Nonetheless, it was their own initiative and determination to take ownership of English and hold firm to their national cultural identity that played a key role in helping them develop a sense of confidence and inclusion in the host society: I feel like an international student in an international environment with students from different countries in Thailand I use English to communicate with other international students and the instructors in our program All the Thai staff can speak English as well I enjoy my life as an international student in this university Foreigners feel at home in this foreign country with reasonable living standard and friendly local people Studying in Thailand offers me a lot of opportunities to get in touch with professional academic 210 P.L Ha experts and new cutting-edge information in the ELT field We have easy access to academic books, journals and internet We can attend international conference in our field I enjoy my experience in Thailand both as a MA student and as a teacher I have enriched my personal interest as well as my academic interest (S4-China) Thai people are very friendly and open-hearted to foreigners and especially for me as Korean For the time I’ve spent in Thailand, I felt very warm and comfortable with people (S5-Korea) Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 Another wonderful thing during my study here is their hospitality which has made me feel ‘at home’ in this land of smile They are very helpful and friendly to us, as foreigners in their country and they really appreciate if we try to speak Thai (S7-Indonesia) The positions taken by these students in relation to English suggest that they did not feel intimidated as Asian foreigners in Thailand These students seemed to have obtained the status of who they wanted to become and their ownership of English seemed to facilitate this growing identity status Being Asian was not something that troubled them They did not apologise for being Asian; in other words, they did not seem to be self-colonised But they did not romanticise English either Instead, being Asian and reasserting this identity together with their ownership of English appeared to be their overall perspective Having said this does not at all suggest that their identity formation was easy or straightforward Further data show that while the cultural politics associated with English (Holliday, 2005; Pennycook, 1994, 1998) operates in different forms in many current practices, these students’ appropriation of English had also undergone ‘socially informed struggle and strategic negotiation’ (Canagarajah, 2005, p xvi) For example, a student from Indonesia wrote: I also met some people who doubted my English teaching ability; most of the time, those who believe in the superiority of native speakers as the only good English teacher I always believe that language is like other learnable skills, and English is not an exception This language has served a vast array of purposes all over the world as a means of communication, rather than a property of certain people Another bothering issue is about how they relate nativeness to teaching qualification (and salary) Some of them only categorize English teachers’ qualification and salary from the physical look, such as native speakers, semi-native speakers (e.g Polish), foreigners (e.g Indian) or Thais It seems that as long as you have got the fair skin, blond hair or any Caucasian physical appearance, you will get higher salary Well, this is the reality, life must go on; but I hope that as soon as English becomes more universal, people will accept English as the world language, not a privilege I hope so (S7-Indonesia) Her belief that English was not a property and a privilege belonging to a certain group of people and that teachers are ‘made rather than born’ (Phillipson, 1992) seemed to enable her to look forward to a future in which English, as ‘the world language’, could help eliminate the harmful practices she had mentioned I argue that this position was not at all naăve or rosy Rather, it tends to consolidate the view that international users of English will have the authority over it, the view that has been well documented by many authors (for instance, Brutt-Griffler, 2002; McKay, 2002; Phan, 2008; Seidlhofer, 2003; Warschauer, 2000) Taking ownership as teacher of English as an international language (EIL) As part of their ELT courses, these international students were required to teach for a few weeks at schools in Bangkok, Thailand In addition, at the time this study was Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 Language and Intercultural Communication 211 carried out, some of them were teaching English to Thai students in language schools and to foreigners in Thailand They also gave private tutoring in English to Thai school pupils They did not seem to go through the painful experiences that many of the teachers in Holliday (2005) reported Although there were many white native speakers of English in Thailand, as they mentioned, they did not see this as taking away their ownership of English Instead, they felt they had obtained a comfortable status that represented them well and corresponded to their position in relation to English Being properly trained and qualified, speaking other languages plus English, and understanding various Englishes were their strengths They did not seem to be judged against the native speaker and received respect from their students and the Thai people Only one student from Indonesia, as reported above, expressed her concern about the native-worshipping attitude held by a group of individuals, but this did not suggest that she was mistreated as a teacher there All of these students expressed a high level of confidence and professionalism as teachers of the English language: As a foreign teacher, I am respected, and treated almost equal comparing with other westerner (S1-China) Thai students respect teachers a lot Teachers in Thai have a high authority (S2-China) Teaching in Thailand gives me the first-hand experience in an intercultural environment Thai students are creative in thinking and artistic in talent Students are open-minded and cooperative in attitude to learn from their respected teachers (S4-China) When I came to Bangkok, the limited knowledge expanded with theories and experience in an EFL classroom The realization of making Thai students feel confident in their ability to use the language as a means of communication in and outside the classroom depends so much on the interaction which takes place in class became a driving force to more for them Also, the different perspective of learning and teaching between me and my students I think has made my teaching experience a little bit more of an adventure and a meaningful Aside from the language, we also learned culture, tolerance, and harmony At the end of the journey, friendship became possible (S6-Phillipines) I enjoy studying and teaching English in Thailand since I have got the advantages of being an Asian and yet, proficient in English; which I hope could be a role model among other successful English learners in a non-English speaking country I really want to inspire them to be more confident and motivated to learn English since we have gone through more or less similar path to attain English proficiency (S7-Indonesia) I have taught conversation classes at a university in Thailand, helping the undergraduate students to improve their English oral and aural ability (S8-Taiwan) While previous studies have indicated an inferiority complex among non-native teachers of English (Brutt-Griffler & Samimy, 1999), their painful experiences in various contexts (Holliday, 2005) and their internal struggles to overcome these experiences as well as their journeys to reclaim their identities (Koh, 2008), what the international English teacher students in this study perceived of themselves seemed ideal and very different It may be that what they had learned in their ELT course had prepared them for the cultural politics of English and their teaching contexts were more accepting to diversity and difference But above all, their proactive appropriation of English tended to empower them more than any other factor 212 P.L Ha Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 01:40 19 August 2009 Conclusions and implications Situated in the context and debates surrounding EIL and in the existing literature on international students from Asia, this article has demonstrated that many of the stereotypes about Asian international students are not always valid Asian international students need to be seen as individuals in terms of who they are, who they want to be and who they could become By the same token, their relation to English need not be simply as ‘victims of the language’ as they are often portrayed in the literature The students participating in this study enjoyed multiple positions with respect to English and identified themselves with English in diverse ways Their multiple identities were constructed around English and their being Asian but not at all in a static and patronising manner as assumed and claimed by some of the earlier studies cited above Rather, their identities were produced and reproduced in complex, dynamic and sophisticated ways, around their negotiations of available options and awareness of possibilities, and their proactive creation of new self-constructions that were relevant and meaningful to their sense of self Their taking ownership of English seemed to permeate and facilitate all these processes This article presents the voices that need to be heard more in the literature Note on contributor Dr Phan Le Ha is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Monash University Australia and holds honorary lecturer positions at universities in Vietnam Her teaching and research areas include English as an international language, identity, language and culture, TESOL, culture and pedagogy, creative and academic writing, and internationalisation of education Phan Le Ha has published in international refereed journals and books Her recent book with Multilingual Matters (UK), Teaching English as an International Language: Identity, Resistance and Negotiation (2008), examines how EIL teachers see themselves as professionals and individuals in relation to their work practices, and reveals the tensions, compromises, negotiations and resistance in their enactment of different roles and selves, especially when they are exposed to values often associated with the English-speaking West Phan Le Ha has also been invited to speak and be part of symposia at international conferences in different countries References Ballard, B., & Clanchy, J (1991) Assessment by misconception: Cultural influences and intellectual traditions In L Hamp-Lyons (Ed.), Assessing second language writing in academic contexts (pp 19Á34) Norwood, NJ: 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EIL by its users Language and Intercultural Communication 209 ‘I not own the language and the language does not own me’ English language has become an international language, and some people may... Asians, and Asian students, make to New Zealand’s economic growth and multicultural identity As Coates (2004) has noted, international students remain ‘the foreigner’ and ‘the stranger’ Another.. .Language and Intercultural Communication Vol 9, No 3, August 2009, 201Á214 English as an international language: international student and identity formation Phan Le Ha* Downloaded By: [Monash