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Deconstructing the Discourse of Proficiency: Social Class and Preservice English Language Teachers
La deconstrucción del discurso de la competencia: clase social y profesores de inglés en formación
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v28n2.123379Keywords:
Narratives, Discourse of proficiency, Social class, Teacher education (en)Clase social, Discurso de la competencia, Formación docente, Narrativas (es)
The discourse of proficiency in English-language teacher education has been shaped by corporate demands for an ideal speaker. This discourse forces future English language teachers to meet rigid expectations that overlook their sociocultural traits, such as race, social class, and geographical location. This narrative case study draws on narrative frameworks and interviews to analyze how the social class of four English-language preservice teachers at a Colombian public university shapes their experiences of language proficiency. Findings suggest that participants experienced proficiency differently depending on their social class, cultural dispositions, and individual differences. Their stories deconstruct the taken-for-granted concept of proficiency and unveil broader sociocultural and political implications for English-language teacher education.
El discurso de la competencia en la formación de docentes de inglés se ha construido a partir de exigencias corporativas respecto de un hablante ideal. Este discurso exige a los futuros docentes que se ajusten a expectativas rígidas que excluyen características socioculturales como la raza, la clase social y la ubicación geográfica. Este estudio de caso narrativo recurrió a marcos narrativos y a entrevistas para analizar la incidencia de la clase social en las experiencias (o en el discurso) de competencia lingüística de cuatro docentes en formación de una universidad pública. Los resultados sugieren que los participantes experimentan la competencia de manera distinta según sus disposiciones sociales, culturales e individualidades. Sus historias deconstruyen el concepto normalizado de competencia y revelan implicaciones más amplias para la formación docente.
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