Resumen de Nonnative teachers in the expanding circle and the ownership of English

Isaiah WonHo Yoo

• Numerous scholars (e.g. Crystal 2003; Widdowson 2003) have argued that English belongs to nonnative speakers because English is widely used as an international language and because there are more nonnative speakers than native speakers. Many nonnative teachers in the Expanding Circle accept this argument, believing that having the ownership of English empowers them. This forum piece, however, argues that the issue of English ownership is not as relevant for them as it is for those living in the Outer Circle because there may not exist a local variety of English in their respective country. Moreover, claiming the ownership of English can bring about detrimental effects in their classroom, especially when only "good English" is accepted as "a powerful symbolic resource" (Park 2010: 193), as is the case in Korea. This article also argues that the real source of nonnative teachers' empowerment stems from their identity as the ideal teachers of English to English as a Foreign Language learners.