Diversification, desire, and hierarchization of unequal Englishes on online eikaiwa

Abstract

Online eikaiwa, or English conversations via teleconferencing platforms, is a popular informal English learning avenue among Japanese nationals. Although online eikaiwa has received scholarly attention in recent years, only a few studies have investigated the current diversification efforts in the industry in terms of hiring teachers from various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Using critical discourse analysis, this paper analyzed multimodal semiotic resources of texts, videos, and photos found on online eikaiwa companies’ websites and student customers’ reviews. The findings reveal that the diversification trend initiated by online eikaiwa schools supports everyday discourses that hierarchise unequal Englishes and reinforce native-speakerism. We also found that despite the ubiquity of native speaker bias, female teachers from the Philippines and Serbia are highly commodified because of the unequal social and gendered relations among teachers and student customers. Our analysis shows that male Japanese consumers engaged in conversations with female LX (Dewaele, J. M. 2018. “Why the Dichotomy ‘L1 Versus LX User’ is Better Than ‘Native Versus non-Native Speaker’.” Applied Linguistics 39 (2): 236–240) English speaking teachers (ESTs) not primarily for language development but for their desire and fetishes for female teachers. The paper ends by arguing that the inequities and gendered formations found in online eikaiwa intersect with pre-existing economic, historical, and political connections between Japan and the host countries of LX ESTs.