A critical analysis of Cambodian teachers’ cognition about World Englishes and English language teaching

Abstract

For at least the last three decades, English has been popularised as a foreign language in Cambodia. However, despite the continued changes in the socio-economic and geopolitical landscape in the region that shape how English is used intranationally and internationally in Cambodia, little is known about how Cambodian teachers conceptualise and approach English in response to such changes. Working on the premise of World Englishes, this study investigates a small group of Cambodian English teachers’ cognition about English varieties and their reported practice. Using qualitative interviews, the analysis informed by critical theory arrives at two interconnected themes: teachers’ negative attitudes towards non-Inner Circle English varieties; and teachers’ conceptions of non-nativeness as a discourse of deficit. These findings are discussed as limiting the teachers’ linguistic, personal, and professional identities and growth, and a radical shift in conceptualisations about English and English language teaching in this context is called for.

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