BILINGUALISM OR IMITATION OF A NATIVE SPEAKER? AN ANALYSIS OF VIDEOS PRODUCED BY “TEACHERS OF ENGLISH” FROM A HOLISTIC AND DECOLONIAL PERSPECTIVE

UMA ANÁLISE DE VÍDEOS PRODUZIDOS POR “PROFESSORES DE INGLÊS” A PARTIR DE UMA PERSPECTIVA HOLÍSTICA E DECOLONIAL

Abstract

This paper analyzes videos produced by North American English native speakers, who commit to teaching English on YouTube as they address themselves as English language teachers. The data associated with the analysis hereby presented consist of excerpts of transcriptions from three videos, in which these “teachers of English”, who happen to be native speakers, do not necessarily have the "adequate theoretical knowledge, necessary training or mandatory degree for being a teacher of English (Cordeiro e Duarte-de-Santana, 2021), present the native speaker, that means, themselves, as the center of the English learning process, and ultimately as the pattern to be followed/imitated. For this reason, we discuss about Bilingualism and Biculturalism (Grosjean, 2008, 2013); Deforeignization of the English language (Anjos, 2019); Linguistic Prejudice (Bagno, 2000); as well as Decoloniality (Machado, Delfino & Rodrigues, 2021; Alvarado & Lozada, 2016) as valid theoretical framework to rethink English language teaching and learning processes in the contemporaneity. From the analyses carried out (Bardin, 1977; Moraes, 1999), it was possible to observe that the non-training of these professionals, who addresses themselves as “teachers of English”, in addition to the lack of an adequate degree for being a teacher of English, contributes to the reproduction of certain beliefs (Barcelos, 2006) about English learning, such as the one that suggests that a learner or second language user should be the imitation or shadow of a native speaker (Cook, 2013).