Robert James Lowe
Tokyo Kasei University
Robert J. Lowe is a lecturer in the Department of English Communication, Tokyo Kasei University. He is co-author of 'Teaching English as a Lingua Franca' (DELTA Publishing, 2018), co-editor of 'Duoethnography in English Language Teaching' (Multilingual Matters, 2020), and author of the monograph 'Uncovering Ideology in English Language Teaching' (Springer, 2020). He has published papers numerous journals, including Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics Review, ELT Journal, and Language, Culture and Curriculum. He is also a cohost of The TEFLology Podcast.
Sessions
The Problem of Native-Speakerism: Why Haven't We Resolved This?
The "Conference Chair's Panel" is an initiative of this year's conference that we hope will become a tradition. It will take an issue of particular importance or interest to the Conference Chair, and gather some experts to discuss it. This year, the topic is Native-Speakerism. Why Native-Speakerism? Because it's important? Yes. Because it's a complex issue? Yes, that too. It's not because it hasn't been discussed, and neither is it because ELT professionals don't realise native-speakerism is a problem. It's because we — with the 'we' being ELT professionals —haven't resolved this issue to most people's satisfaction. Fortunately, all four members of this panel are all well-equipped to talk about the issue, with each bringing a different perspective. The question that serves as our point of departure will open up into a dialogue that will hopefully offer some fresh insights and take us further down the road to resolving this important problem. Panel Members: Marek Kiczkowiak Robert Lowe Hyun-jung Shin Varinder Unlu Angie White Moderator: Michael Free