A bad native speaker teacher sees the British as we and the students as they, as ‘Johnny foreigner’.

For many years I taught Asylum Seekers. Many of them had been in the UK for quite a few years. What upset me was to come across young people who had been in the UK for the same amount of time as my own children, but who still spoke English with an accent. They made many mistakes and had trouble writing essays.

In particular, I remember one young woman. She was from Peru, a vivacious 17-year-old. She told me her family had left Peru because they had lived in an area where the Sendero Luminoso and the Army were at loggerheads. This student had arrived five years before, but her English was still weak.

I think I know how it happened.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://arsnotoria.com/2021/03/08/cultural-gatekeepers-make-for-bad-teachers/